The Hindu Business Line : A spanner in the works

THE Left undoubtedly finds itself in an unenviable predicament as a result of the recent statements of the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhatacharjee. Not only has he been expressing himself strongly in favour of globalisation, 100 per cent FDI in greenfield projects, especially on airports, and conversion of farm lands for industrial use to facilitate investments in such projects, he even did loud thinking during his recent visit to Chennai to participate in the Foundation Day of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation on something that has been anathema to the Left: The desirability of allowing entry for global retail marketing chains such as Wal-Mart and Metro.

On the face of them, they are aggressively supportive of Manmohanomics and out of sync with the ideological position of the Left on various issues at the heart of the economic reform process. He is even quoted as having said, "Reform or perish", though this was subsequently explained as a misunderstanding by the media of his actual words which were "Perform or perish"! What must be all the more galling to the Left parties is his giving vent to his views while on a tour of foreign countries.

There is no difference between his reported stance in his interview to The Jakarta Post, and that of any ardent liberalisation enthusiast. It is bound to go against the grain of the Left establishment. It will be hardly surprising if quite a few feathers are ruffled in his own party by his warning, in particular, to the communists to shed their "old dogmas" and reform their old policies if they want to survive in the changed world context and rubbing it in with the Chinese example.

His call to the workers to change their mindset and be answerable for productivity and quality equally with the management cannot certainly be music to their ears. Both Mr Jyoti Basu, when he was Chief Minister, and Mr Somnath Chatterji, as the former chairman of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, approached the reformist agenda almost in the same spirit, but they went about it discreetly. Why Mr Bhattacharjee chose to go public so outspokenly, sparking needless controversy, when he could have worked for, and brought about, the same changes from behind the scenes is a million dollar question.

B. S. Raghavan

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