45th Anniversary of Ganasakthi Daily Celebrated

The 45th Foundation Day of Bengali Daily Ganasakthi , the organ of Communist Party of India Marxist Westbengal State Committee was celebrated on 04th January 2011. CPIM State Secretary Com. Biman Bose, Com Budhadeb Bhattacharya and various leaders were present at the ceremony.  

GANASHAKTI: 44 YEARS OF PUBLICATION

 

Ganashakti, the Bengali daily of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) completed its 44th year of publication on January 3. To mark the occasion a meeting attended by party leaders, members and workers was held in Kolkata which was addressed by the Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, State party secretary and polit bureau member Biman Bose and Ganashakti Editor Narayan Dutta. Presenting an elaborate history of land movement in 1960’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said it was under the leadership of Left parties a remarkable change took place on the State’s agricultural front. The poor and landless peasants were given pattas, bargadars provided with hereditary right to cultivate, and eviction of sharecroppers stopped. The peasants and people in general could feel “who are their friends and who are their foes.”

 

Emphasizing the need for industrial growth the Chief Minister said now time had come for West Bengal to build an infrastructure for industrial development side by side with agricultural advancement. Market for industrial products was fast expanding with the increasing purchasing power among  rural masses.   Annually industrial products worth about Rs 27,000 crore were being purchased by village people, he said. Pointing that the CPI(M) was the first political party in the State to have championed the cause of landless farmers, Bhattacharjee said, “ we have to walk on the path of industrialization, but have to tread carefully. Raising a new slogan ‘ Krishi, Silpa, Manush’ ( agriculture, industry and people) he said that drawing lessons from past experiences in Singur and Nandigram, the Left Front governments had decided to be careful in acquiring land for industrialization.

Inaugurating the English website of Ganashakti Biman Bose said to protect the interest of working class and peasants decision to bring out a party paper was taken 44 years ago. The necessasity for its publication was being now being felt when democracy was being attacked, violence being indulged in by Trinamool-Maoists combine.

Editor of Ganashakti Narayan Dutta traced the history of the party daily saying that its circulation was increasing which established the fact that people wanted to know the voice of the deprived, exploited and the poor.

West Bengal must be industrialised, but with caution: Buddhadeb

West Bengal will progress on the path of industrialisation, but the Left Front Government must do so with “caution” in the face of the Opposition's attempts to mislead the people by constantly harping on the controversies surrounding Singur and Nandigram, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee asserted. Speaking ahead of the Assembly elections in the State, he charged that the Opposition was “getting impatient to come to power” and resorting to violence to do so. “But how can it be expected that we will surrender to the forces of violence so easily? We will never do so,” he said.

Coining the slogan “Krishi, Shilpa, Manush” (agriculture, industry and the people) in response to Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's “Ma, Maati, Manush” (the mother, the land and the people)”, Mr. Bhattacharjee said that it was the Communist Party of India (Marxist) that had led the peasant movement and struggle for land reform in the State and is now ushering in a policy of industrialisation in the interest of the youth.

Factory in Singur

“There will be a factory in Singur, if possible an automobile factory,” asserted Mr. Bhattacharjee adding that the agitation at the controversial site for the factory had been West Bengal's loss, not the Tatas'. He also said that the petrochemical hub planned in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district will certainly come up at the alternative site at Nayachar. “What did we learn from the two experiences? We know that we have to proceed with the policy of industrialisation with caution,” he said, adding that about 6,000 acres of land had been acquired for the industry since the agitation at Singur.

Stating that the Trinamool Congress repeatedly invokes the two incidents in its campaign, Mr. Bhattacharjee emphasised that “the police had not gone to Nandigram for the purpose of acquiring land, but to restore the law and order situation after three months of mayhem.” Mr. Bhattacharjee said that despite his assurance that no land will be acquired in Nandigram, a situation of lawlessness prevailed there for three months and the region was rendered inaccessible. He also clarified that it was not possible to give in to the Opposition's demand of returning 400 acres of land from the factory site at Singur and according to the government's assessment of the situation, not more than a hundred acres could have been restored to those farmers who were unwilling to sell their land.

Sending a strong message to the party organisation, Mr. Bhattacharjee said the misconduct of some CPI (M) workers had resulted in a loss of face for the whole party. “We shall have to indulge in self-criticism and reconnect with the people,” he said.