Bandhs, Ban, and Buddha
I don’t support bandhs: Buddha
August 27, TNN
Kolkata: In a defiant remark from a leader of a party which is synonymous with blockades and strikes, West Bengal’s CPM chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee stepped out of the card-holder straitjacket on Tuesday and spoke against bandhs. It was ‘‘unfortunate’’ that he belonged to a party that calls bandhs, the Marxist told a gathering of top industrialists and businessmen in Kolkata on Monday.
‘‘Personally, I don’t support bandhs. Bandhs do not help us or the country. Unfortunately, I belong to a political party. They call strikes and I keep mum. But I have decided to open up the next time,’’ the CM said, in reply to a question from Biswadeep Gupta, joint managing director, JSW Bengal Steel, at the Assocham meet on Tuesday. And on gherao, he said it was ‘‘illegal and unethical’’.
Bhattacharjee’s remarks clearly show the bind he is caught in. To play the true Red or play development messiah, as he has promised to do. The CM’s moves to woo foreign investment put him in a spot with hardliners who weren’t comfortable with his pro-industry lurch. When he turned to Ratan Tata to bring in jobs and big moolah, a controversial land acquisition drive became a potent weapon in Opposition hands. Bhattacharjee’s statement on Tuesday was met with shock in Left circles. Less than a week ago, the Left had celebrated a nationwide bandh — that paralyzed no other state but Bengal — as a ‘‘great success’’. Bhattacharjee’s public statement against bandhs and gheraos — trueblue Left weapons — marks a sharp departure from his predecessor Jyoti Basu, who kept on saying that strike was the last resort of the workers, and they should not mortgage it to any government.
The CM also rejected Trinamool’s demand for the return of 400 acres of Tata Motors’ Nano factory site to farmers. ‘‘I cannot afford to return the 400 acres. If that land has to be returned, (then) Tata Motors project has to be dropped. I cannot allow this to happen,’’ he said, adding, ‘‘It was not legally possible to return the land. I am not an egoist.¶
Buddha’s vow to fight bandh fails to win CEOs
Sumali Moitra | TNN
Kolkata: A good sound bite. Business observers aren’t reading too much into the promise of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that he would be more vocal against bandhs the next time Citu or Left parties decide to flex their muscles by closing down the state.
Industry representatives believe the CM’s political compulsions — he belongs to a party where individual views count for nothing — would make it difficult for him to publicly condemn a bandh called either by his partymen or trade union colleagues.
As proof, they point to the CM’s inability to prevent the IT sector from being included within the purview of the bandh called by Left unions on August 20 despite his government’s commitment to the IT/ITeS segments that these would be insulated from such disruptions. “Bhattacharjee is simply in no position to have his way in any matter that may appear to contradict the position adopted by his party,¶ MindTree co-founder Subroto Bagchi said.
“If the CPM can expel a person of the standing of Somnath Chatterjee for going against the party’s wishes, you can appreciate that individual views just doesn’t count in that party. There is no way he can have his way on the bandh issue if the shutdown is being sponsored by his party or Citu,¶ Bagchi added.
Business experts also say that with Citu playing such a vital role in garnering votes for the CPM (already facing difficult times following its reverses in the panchayat and municipal polls) and impending Lok Sabha polls, Bhattacharjee can ill-afford to do anything that goes against the interests of his stakeholders.
The CM’s inability to solve the land acquisition muddle – the government’s haste in pushing through land acquisition for industry is often cited as a reason for the CPM’s recent poll reverses – and Left parties’ withdrawal of support to UPA has further limited Bhattacharjee’s ability to do anything that may seemingly go against the wishes of the CPM/Citu top brass. A senior executive of a corporate houses expressed his reservations about CM’s ability to curb future Citu bandhs. “Let’s not forget that the CM was addressing a business gathering where he is expected to condemn any form of disruptions.¶
Why Buddha is against bandhs ; Shaju Philip
August 28, 2008 , Indian Express
One of the industry’s biggest problems in Left-ruled states is frequent bandhs. Speaking to members of Assocham and local chambers on Tuesday, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb said he doesn’t support any bandh, and admitted that they don’t help anyone. He also announced, to a loud applause: “I have finally decided that next time (a bandh is called by his party) I will open my mouth.¶
Thiruvananthapuram, August 27: “Even God cannot save this state,¶ the Kerala High Court observed recently while hearing a bunch of petitions seeking a directive to the Government to ensure that citizens aren’t disturbed on a hartal day.
However, perhaps no one knows better than the Kerala HC that rulings such as this don’t really matter in the state. In 1997, the state high court had effectively banned bandhs. In 10 years, that hasn’t stopped anyone. They just don’t call it a bandh these days; they refer to it as a hartal.
The last hartal was just a week ago, on August 20, when Left unions called a nationwide stir against the economic policies of the Centre. The trade unions in the state converted that into a 24-hour hartal. In the last eight months, the state has seen six such state-wide hartals and 75-odd local and region hartals.
While the LDF Government has been desperately wooing investors to the state, the Left coalition fathered three of those six state-wide hartals. An outfit that calls itself the Anti-Hartal Front says Kerala witnesses five to seven state-wide hartals on an average, 50-odd district ones and 150 at the local levels.
Any issue can overnight snowball into a hartal. Some of the “provocations¶ in the past have been fuel price hike, Saddam Hussein’s hanging, political violence and the Amarnath land issue. Last year, the Congress sponsored a hartal in protest against the government “failure¶ to contain chikungunya.
According to the Kerala Chamber of Commerce, the state suffers a loss of Rs 450 crore from a day’s hartal. Chairman E S Jose calls hartal a weapon for politicians who have nothing else to do, and warns that this could scare away investors at a time when several mega projects are in the pipeline in the state.
He also points out that it’s only the salaried employees who perhaps welcome a hartal. “The business class and the self-employed face huge losses. How will an ordinary worker survive if he is denied jobs due to hartals?¶ Jose asked.
To ensure that these strike calls are a success, the sponsors ensure two things: bring vehicular transport to a standstill, and prevent business establishments and offices from functioning.
It’s not a surprise then that the debt-ridden state-owned transport corporation perhaps suffers the most, incurring on an average a loss of Rs 3 crore from a day’s strike. With its buses sitting ducks for protestors to take out their anger, it takes up to three days to return fleet operations to normal. For example, since the Left Government assumed office in May 2006 in the state, KSRTC (Kerala State Road Transport Corporation) services have remained affected for 95 days, either partially or fully.
Recently, the state Government filed an affidavit in the high court saying efforts were on to find a consensus among political parties on how to address the problem of hartals. It said the Government wanted the support of the people on this.
However, as Congress spokesperson M M Hassan, who has campaigned against hartals, says: “People cannot be blamed for the success of hartals. They remain indoors, fearing attack from hartal sponsors. Poltiical parties have to take a firm stand.¶
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/354135.html
Why Buddha is against bandhs
Suchetana Haldar , August 28, 2008 , Indian Express
Kochi, August 27:
From the Chief Minister to the Calcutta High Court, everyone has expressed helplessness in checking the culture of bandhs in West Bengal. However, so far it has made little difference.
In fact, if the recent nationwide bandh called by the Left trade unions was a “success¶, it was so basically in West Bengal and the Left-ruled Kerala.
In 2008, West Bengal has seen five state-wide bandhs, of them three called by the Left — the Forward Bloc, the Left Front and the CPI(M)’s labour wing CITU. If the Forward Bloc called a bandh in the wake of the police firing on its supporters in Dinhata, the CPI(M) announced a bandh to protest against the arrest of its Hooghly leader Suhrid Dutta in the Tapasi Mallik murder case of Singur, while there have been several bandhs on the fuel price hike.
Each bandh has paralysed city life. Vehicular transport went off roads, train services were severely disrupted, shops downed shutters all through the day and even public offices registered poor attendance. Each bandh, there were calls for keeping Information Technology — the sunrise sector — out. But during each bandh the functioning of these 24X7 service providers has been affected.
The ripple effect of such bandhs has been quite remarkable, with cancellation of foreign business delegations arriving in the city. There have been instances where Kolkata has been dropped off from the itinerary of business delegates.
In 2006, there were around five bandhs in West Bengal, with at least three being scheduled in December 2006. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had to suffer the ignominy of seeing US Ambassador David Mulford leave the city on November 30 to avoid the first bandh on December 1. This was followed by the news that a high-level Romanian trade team had cancelled its December 6, 2006, programme.
The recurring bandhs take a heavy toll on the state’s economy. According to estimates of the chambers of commerce, the state suffers a loss of around Rs 10,000 crore on each bandh it observes.
The Calcutta High Court has in the past expressed helplessness in executing its own orders for the lack of an administrative machinery. In July 2004, for instance, a division bench of former acting chief justice A Roy and Justice A K Mitra said “the judiciary is impotent as far as bandh is concerned and the court has no administrative authority to take action against bandh supporters¶.
In June 5, 2002, a division bench also observed while disposing of a similar petition that the court could pass an order banning the bandh but it was the duty of the administration to execute it. Hearing a PIL, a division bench presided over by former chief justice A K Mathur observed that the “court is helpless¶ in tackling a bandh. “The courts can do little,¶ Justice Mathur said, “if members of political parties are not conscientious enough about the consequences for ordinary people during a bandh¶.
EXPRESS EDITORIAL : In Citu
August 28, 2008
Buddha tries to fix his party’s rhetoric. But CPM’s paying for years of obstructive politics
It has long been generally known that the CPM’s rhetoric at the Centre about the insidious effects of globalisation and the creeping capitalistic plot that is private sector-led industrialisation is quietly ignored by those members of the party attempting to drag West Bengal out of the morass in which it finds itself. However, till Monday, the state unit had not, in public, chosen to deviate from the party line on the subject. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s statement to a group of Kolkata corporate leaders that he “did not support bandhs¶ is not, perhaps, different from anything that he has been saying in private or trying to implement in public; but it might well mark the first effort to close a few rhetorical gaps.
Such gaps should never have been allowed to develop: the CPM should long ago have undertaken some genuine soul-searching and accepted that, as a party competitive in three states and with aspirations to play king-maker in others, as well as nationally, it cannot permit itself the luxury of allowing the stale, outdated vocabulary of its ideology to constrain the actions of those who have to keep the party afloat. The CPM, and Bhattacharjee, are now suffering the consequences of decades of irresponsibility and avoidance of self-criticism.
The other rhetorical gap is the one that has opened between Bhattacharjee and some middle-level members of the CPM establishment, even in Bengal. However much the CM might declare that gheraos are “immoral¶ — though it appears that he also objected to the fact that of all the words it could borrow from Bengali, English chose that one — his comrades in the trade union movement are unlikely to agree. Bhattacharjee has made tentative attempts to rein in CITU before; on one occasion, his attempt to exclude the IT industry from its ambit caused some pretty nasty infighting, and ended in an unqualified victory for the union. Bhattacharjee’s attempt to rationalise the CPM’s public statements is overdue; what is necessary is for him to take both the insiders that run his state party and the ideologues that run the politburo along with him in his journey to the Centre.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/354248.html
Ban The Bandh
28 Aug 2008, TOI Editorial
It’s rare for an Indian communist to speak out against bandhs. It’s even rarer for a communist chief minister to publicly denounce bandhs. That’s why West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s statement at a public function declaring his opposition to bandhs and gheraos is remarkable.
How seriously do we take the chief minister’s words? This is the leader of a party that has made it a habit, even while in power, to call bandhs in protest against various issues.
Just a week ago, a bandh called by Left parties over the Centre’s economic policies crippled life in all Left-ruled states, including West Bengal. Bhattacharjee’s statement comes at a time when the ruling Left Front in West Bengal is at the receiving end of an opposition-led protest against the Tata Motors’ small car project in Singur.
But even if present circumstances might have forced the chief minister to denounce bandhs, it’s a significant development. He has gone to the extent of admitting that though he ¶keeps mum¶ when his party calls bandhs, he will ¶open up next time¶.
Bhattacharjee’s distaste for bandhs raises the question of the legality of such means of protest in a democracy. The Supreme Court in a 1998 verdict had upheld a Kerala high court ruling declaring bandhs illegal and made it applicable to the entire country.
Political parties have tried to get around this by declaring a hartal instead of calling a bandh. But that’s playing around with words. Bandhs and hartals were powerful means of protests during colonial rule. Indeed, Mahatma Gandhi used hartals as a powerful weapon against British rule.
But they must be seen to be illegal in a constitutional democracy, such as India, which guarantees rule of law and freedom of speech and action. These forms of protest must be distinguished from the right to strike, which is used by workers to negotiate terms with employers and are legitimate.
This seems to be lost on most political parties in India. We have the bizarre situation of political parties calling bandhs while in office. This has happened umpteen times in West Bengal and Kerala.
It happened recently in Tamil Nadu, when the apex court took the DMK to task for backing a bandh in the state. How do we then enforce the law against those who call bandhs? The courts must pull up parties for contempt even when they try to camouflage a bandh call by terming it a hartal or anything else.
But, more importantly, our political parties must realise that bandhs have no place in a democracy. Bhattacharjee’s reaction should set the ball rolling to knock out this anti-democratic practice.
CPM tells Buddha in case he forgot: strike a basic right
August 29, 2008
Politburo: ‘We support all strikes against neoliberal policies’
I do not support any bandh. I agree it’s not helping anyone… But unfortunately as I belong to one party and they call a strike, I keep mum…But I have finally decided that next time I will open my mouth.¶ Applause may have greeted this remark by West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Tuesday but his comrades in Delhi aren’t impressed.
So the CPM Politburo today — which has not issued a single statement on the current standoff in Singur — said that “in the context of certain remarks made by Comrade Bhattacharjee,¶ the party wishes to “clarify¶ that it “firmly stands for the right to strike by the working class as a fundamental right.¶ The statement added: “It has consistently supported the all-India general strikes of the trade unions against the neo-liberal policies of the Central Government and other urgent issues of the working class and the toiling people.¶
Sources said the issue will figure at the Sept 6-7 Politburo meeting. Asked whether the CM would be censured — as was done in the case of Kerala MP A P Abdullakutty who also spoke against strikes — sources said it would depend up on the Politburo.
On one count, though, Bhattacharjee got some comfort. CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, in an editorial in the party paper, said those opposing the Tata plant were enemies of Bengal’s prosperity.
Buddha dare not speak here: 75 strikes in Kerala already this year and losing count
August 29, 2008 , Indian Express
Shaju Philip
Thiruvananthapuram, August 28: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s remark against bandhs may be politically very incorrect for his comrades — but, factually, it couldn’t have been more accurate.
Ask Rodiya, the mother stranded at the Thiruvananthapuram railway station barely eight days ago when Left unions called a 24-hour hartal — not a bandh since bandhs were effectively banned by the Kerala High Court in 1997 — against the “economic policies of the Centre.¶
Rodiya, from Kottayam, got the news that her five-year-old son had died. Roads being blocked, she rushed to the railway station where citing the “neoliberal¶ policies of the Centre, a group of comrades squatted on the tracks. Her tears were of little help. Kottayam is barely three hours away from Thiruvananthapuram but Rodiya reached her home only late evening and that, too, under police protection.
From the trauma of a mother who’s lost her child and can’t get home to countless others, unseen and unheard, who are forced to put everything on hold, Kerala is now the perpetual victim of the bandh-success story: this year alone, 75 hartals have paralysed districts and towns, six the entire state. From Saddam’s execution to the surge in oil prices, from even chikungunya to the death of a local leader — the cause hardly matters when a hartal itself is the rallying cause.
If a member of village panchayat is attacked by a rival party, the next day, that panchayat region shuts down. As highways pass through panchayats and municipalities, a hartal in a particular panchayat affects vehicular movement through that area. Result: long-distance vehicles stop at the border of the district and wait until the end of the agitation. Academic schedules are derailed, the Kerala Chamber of Commerce estimates a Rs 450-crore loss for each strike day, hospitals are forced to reschedule surgeries.
Says Philip Augustine, managing director of Lakeshore Hospital, Kochi: “Surgeries and consultations would have been booked months before. If patients cannot reach the hospital, they miss treatment at the correct time. Cancer patients are the worst hit. Even chemotherapies have had to be postponed due to hartals. On a hartal day, we have send ambulances to bring doctors hoping that ambulances will be spared by the agitators. The entire logistics of the hospital goes haywire.¶
Clearly, the fundamental right to strike over-rides all these. Consider:
• The August 20 hartal was the fifth statewide hartal in Kerala this year. The same day, the Manalur Assembly constituency in Thrissur observed another hartal to protest against the murder of a BJP activist.
So endemic is the hartal virus in the state that ideology is no immunity.
• BJP was first to organise a statewide hartal this year. The party is yet to get a single Assembly seat but its hartal on May 2 grounded the entire state. Its cause: protest against price rise.
• Both comrades and the Parivar — who otherwise kill each other in Kannur and then call hartals to mark that — joined hands to shut down the state on June 5 against the hike in fuel prices.
• Hindu groups again hit the state with another hartal on July 3, over the Amarnath land issue.
• On July 21, the CPM-led Left slapped another hartal across the state in protest against the death of a school teacher in political violence, allegedly involving the Muslim League.
• The coastal town of Kodungalloor — the new Sangh-CPM battleground — saw hartals for three consecutive days. On July 3, the city was shut as part of a statewide hartal. The murder of a DYFI activist that day forced the CPM-DYFI combine to call for a hartal on July 4. The following day, local traders observed another hartal, in protest against attack on shops.
• Pathanapuram constituency in Kollam observed a shutdown on July 2 after police arrested a CPI leader who had been involved in a crime.
• On July 24, Thalassery town, along Kerala-Mumbai highway, shut down in protest against the murder of a CPM worker by NDF.
• Mulavukadu panchayat in Ernakulam district joined the hartal chronicle on July 26 against alleged police highhandedness towards a panchayat member.
• Wayanad district, the major link between Kerala and Karnataka, remained shut on August 5, after the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) wanted a bailout package for crisis-ridden farmers in the district.
• UDF sponsored a district hartal in Idukki, which houses several tourist spots, on June 30, to register the protest against CPM attack on Congressmen.
• The BJP in Palakkad organized a district hartal on February 6, after its workers were arrested as part of anti-goonda drive of police.
Recently, the Kerala High Court came down heavily on the state government considering a bunch of petitions asking the court to initiate contempt of court against the government which failed to ensure normal life on a hartal day.
While hearing the petition, the court said, “Even a small-scale trader who has only an investment of Rs 5,000 cannot do business on a hartal day. The government has the responsibility to ensure normal life. People should get the confidence to venture out on a hartal day.¶
But so inured is the state that the general reaction is one of acceptance rather than anger. Anwar Jahan Zuberi, Vice Chancellor of Calicut University, asked about how hartals had affected the schedule, said she would not react on this sensitive political issue. Said Kannur University VC P Chandramohan: “We are forced to postpone many exams as students would not be able to reach the exam centres for want of transport facility.¶
Asked how the tourism industry — linked to Brand Kerala — is being crippled by hartals, state Tourism Secretary V Venu said he had no comments on the issue.
Not surprising, since if he had a comment, there could very well be a strike against it the next day.
Why Buddha said: The next bandh, I will open my mouth
Subrata Nagchoudhury: Saturday, August 30, 2008 Indian Express
Politburo statement public censure, says Biman: disconnect between party and govt
Kolkata, August 29: A day after the CPM Politburo issued a statement saying the right to strike was a fundamental right, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s very public criticism of bandhs provoked a very public snub. Left Front chairman Biman Bose said here today that the Politburo statement was a “public censure¶ (of the CM) and, therefore, the “chapter was closed¶ on the controversy.
Far from it. At the state secretariat meeting today, Bhattacharjee was silent but just a week ago, his No. 2 and state Industries Minister Nirupam Sen had echoed his lines at a meeting with chambers of commerce. “We, in the government, do not support bandhs,¶ he said. “In West Bengal, bandhs assume a different connotation. Elsewhere, everything doesn’t get affected the way it does here. This should certainly be considered. From the government’s side, we assure you we do not want bandhs. But we do not get what we want and what we get we do not want.¶
His cabinet colleague Subash Chakrabarty endorsed this. “Bandhs did not help anyone,¶ he said, adding: “The day is not far when people will outright reject bandhs.¶ Clearly, there’s a disconnect between the CPM government and the CPM party. And while in Kerala, the mood is one of acceptance, few in the West Bengal government can afford to endorse a bandh call:
• Industry associations and chambers of commerce — after much debate — equated the stalling of work in Singur and the bandh called by the Left unions on August 20. “Continued disruptions severely affecting mega projects…with a still-persisting bandh culture and retrograde steps can cruelly wipe out the positive image which West Bengal has been able to create vis-à-vis its industrial regeneration,¶ the statement said.
“We are turning the clock back.¶
• On Bandh Day on August 20, the image of 11-year-old Supon Biswas, who had a brain surgery three months ago, and was stranded at the Howrah Station for five hours with his relatives played out across the state. Similar was the plight of Panchanan Biswas, a villager from Birbhum who had to take his son for a crucial follow-up medical check-up to Bangalore. Their images that day forced CPM leaders to arrange for shifting the patients to Howrah General Hospital. A couple came to the family’s help, having arranged for their air fare to Bangalore the next morning.
• The June 5 bandh by the Left against the oil price hike — and the Trinamool bandh the next day on the same issue — meant that Ritter Wolfgang, an automation expert from German firm Schuler, was stranded at the airport. It didn’t help matters that Wolfgang was to visit the Jamshedpur Tata Motors headquarters in connection with the Nano’s production line. He had to abandon his plan and fly out of Kolkata.
• Nothing gets affected more seriously than the I-T sector, Bhattacharjee’s showpiece. This sector witnessed an investment of over Rs 800 crore and a 48% growth rate in exports over the last three years. As many as 250 companies operate out of Kolkata employing about 45,000 professionals. Many of these are 24X7 service providers with global clients. The gross value of export under Software Technology Park has already exceeded Rs 3600 crore during 2007-8 as against Rs 2160 crore in 2005-06. While this sector was earlier insulated from bandhs, it’s getting difficult to do so now. On August 20, many of these companies were severely affected with staff not being able to reach.
• Mandays lost due to strikes was down but is up again as per records of the latest Economic Review of the state government. It shows that in industrial units, while the number of strikes has dipped, the number of mandays lost has gone up sharply. The number of strikes, for instance, decreased from 383 in 2005 to 272 in 2007 (up to November). However, in 2007 (up to November), the number of mandays lost has increased to 133.5 lakh from 2.4 lakh in 2006 and 31.1 lakh in 2005.
Buddha says sorry for anti-bandh remarks
August 29, 2008 , Indian Express
Kolkata, August 29:: Under sharp criticism from the Left leaders, West Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee apologised for his anti-bandh remarks.
“My views on bandhs are my personal opinion,¶ Buddha said.
The apology came after Politburo issued statement censuring Buddhadeb.
To a question, Chakaraborty said that the Politburo’s statement in Delhi on Thursday on the issue ‘is itself a censure of the Chief Minister for his anti-bandh stand.’
¶Buddhadev Bhattacharjee did not try to defend himself or oppose the Politburo decision,¶ Chakraborty, who is CITU West Bengal president, said.
Party politburo member and state secretary Biman Bose also disagreed with Bhattacharjee’s anti-bandh stand and said what he had stated was not the party’s stand.
Bose and Bhattacharjee shared the platform at a condolence meeting for Harkishen Singh Surjeet on Wednesday, where Bhattacharjee did not oppose Bose’s view.
Bhattacharjee was earlier censured by party in early 1990 for resigning from Jyoti Basu cabinet ‘without informing the party.’
Bhattacharjee, who was then Information and Cultural Affairs Minister, had quit the Ministry on the ground that he could not remain ‘within a cabinet of thieves’.
His anti-bandh stand has been rejected by all Left Front constituents and trade unions on the ground that fundamental right of workers to strike could not be taken away.
¶It is a democratic mode of protest and we are not ready to forego this right,¶ the Left parties and trade unions have said.
West Bengal CITU general secretary Kali Ghosh said that Bhattacharjee’s remarks were his personal opinion and that the issue should have been discussed in the Left Front.
Strike the right note
30 Aug 2008, Jug Suraiya, Times of India
In a statement that has set the capitalist cat among the communist pigeons, Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has said that though strikes and bandhs are the customary instruments of non-negotiation in Marxist ideology, he himself does not approve of such industrial inaction, and has ‘kept mum’ when his party has resorted to such devices.
Bhattacharjee seems to be as at odds with legal niceties as with communist theory and practice, for, according to the law, silence — or ‘keeping mum’, as the CM would have it — implies consent: if you see a murder about to be committed and maintain silence by not calling out to warn the victim, you are deemed to consent to the act and be an accomplice to it.
Juristic wrinkles aside, the CM’s remarks underscore the ideological and pragmatic dilemma the CPM faces, not just against the backdrop of embattled Singur but in the larger context of a globalising world in which the most rapid economic progress is being made by China, a communist giant flexing capitalist muscle. Could Beijing have hosted a spectacular Olympics, at an estimated cost of $43 billion, if it had allowed people to go on strike or permitted disruptions of any kind, in the name of Free Tibet, or human rights, or anything else? Probably not.
And if Bengal wants to effect an industrial revival, can it afford the luxury of organised dissent?
Indeed, the answer to that has already been given, and brutally at that, in Nandigram where protests against the forcible usurpation of farmers’ land for dubious industrial needs were ruthlessly suppressed. As a backlash to that, the CPM’s arch adversary in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, has made political capital of the Nandigram misadventure in Singur, where she has whipped up an agitation against Ratan Tata’s Nano project. If Tata pulls out of Bengal to go to Pantnagar in Uttarakhand or elsewhere, it would be a mortal blow to Kolkata’s hopes of attracting further investment and bringing about an economic renaissance in a state which was once the most highly industrialised in India, until it was crippled by intransigent, often violent, labour unionism.
Bhattacharjee’s anti-strike pronounce-ments have to be seen against this background. Inevitably, his own party people, in Bengal and Kerala, have denounced what they see as his heresy. The Congress and the Trinamul Congress in Bengal have also assailed his ‘anti-worker’ statement.
The issue is likely to open up a much wider debate than that concerning Bengal’s industrial future, or lack of it: ought the right to go on strike be treated as a basic — if not a fundamental — right in any democratic society, whether it professes socialism, capitalism, or any other ism between the two?
The problem largely stems from semantics, a confusion of terms between a voluntary strike and an enforced strike, popularly called a bandh. A voluntary strike — a voluntary refusal to work as a protest against low wages or anything else — is the obverse of the basic right to seek (though not necessarily get) work. Much used by M K Gandhi in his struggle for independence, the voluntary strike is a cornerstone of our democracy. As a legitimate form of dissent by deed — or rather, non-deed — the right to strike ought to be a basic right in any free society.
A non-voluntary strike, or bandh, where force, or threat of force, is used to paralyse normal life is a clear violation of the rights of non-participating citizens to pursue their everyday business and must be deemed to be illegal — even when it styles itself as that ultimate paradox common to Bengal and other parts of the country: the state-sponsored bandh, which implies that the state is protesting against its own inequities.
So, should strikes be banned? No. Should bandhs be banned? Yes. Or else Ratan Tata, and other entrepreneurs, will exercise their democratic right to go on strike — by striking out for whichever place offers the most business-friendly environment. Lal Salaam.
