Ideological split in WBPCC, says Das Munshi

By Angana Parekh

NEW DELHI, MAY 15. There is an ideological split in the West Bengal unit of the Congress(I), according to the WBPCC working president, Mr. Priyaranjan Das Munshi, who floated a Secular Democratic Forum (SDF) in Calcutta last Saturday. The SDF, according to him, was the first step towards forming a `mahajot' comprising secular, non-CPI(M) forces in the State.

Making no bones about which side of the ideological divide he was on, the Congress' chief whip in the Lok Sabha said a section of State leaders felt that joining hands with the BJP and the Trinamool Congress to dislodge the CPI(M) from power was not wrong. (The reference was unmistakably to leaders like Mr. A. B. A. Ghani Khan Chaudhary, the WBPCC president, whose advocacy of a `mahajot' with the Trinamool Congress - therefore, indirectly with the BJP - has been vehemently opposed by Mr. Das Munshi.)

On the other hand, the rest of the party and its workers feel that strengthening the BJP in one constituency would be a disaster not only for West Bengal but the whole country.

Describing the SDF as a ``social movement'', Mr. Das Munshi hoped that it would lay the foundation stone for a political front in future. He is scheduled to meet the Congress president, Ms. Sonia Gandhi, and Mr. Ghani Khan Chaudhary to explain the rationale behind the SDF. The month-long wrangling over the original `mahajot' proposal had disappointed secular forces which were opposed to the CPI(M) and also minorities who were with the Congress(I). The SDF was mooted to protect secular forces in West Bengal from the onslaught of both Hindu and Muslim fundamentalism orchestrated by the Jamait-e-Islami, RSS.

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