KOLKATA: Refusing to be cowed down by the setback the Communist Party of India (Marxist) suffered in West Bengal in the recent Lok Sabha elections, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Wednesday that the party accepted the challenge thrown to it by the Opposition.
Addressing a function organised by the CPI(M) to celebrate the 121st birth anniversary of Muzaffar Ahmed, a pioneer of the Communist movement in the country, Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “A dangerous element is on the prowl in State politics… it is holding on to the party in power at the Centre with one hand and the Maoists with the other. But we will not retreat in the face of the threat it poses. We will face the challenge with all our might.”
The 2009 Muzaffar Ahmed Sriti Puroshkar was presented on the occasion to Hiren Bhattacharjee, a veteran figure in the Left’s cultural movement, for his book titled “Sanskriti Bhogbad O Mulyabad.”
Vijay Prasad, a professor at the Trinity College, Cambridge, was also given the award for his book in English titled “The Darker Nations: A Biography of the Short-lived Third World.” Though he did not turn up for the event, a letter of thanks he sent was read out to the audience.
Without naming the Trinamool Congress, Mr. Bhattacharjee said in his address that the party had taken to politics of killings and destruction since the April-May Lok Sabha elections. “Its senior leaders were inciting the people to attack CPI(M) workers and leaders.”
Taking a dig at the ‘Maa, Mati, Manush’ slogan of the Trinamool Congress and its call for bringing about a “change,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “Such theatrical emotions cannot solve people’s problems. It cannot be our future… what do they want to change? Do they want to subvert all the good work that the Left Front government has done in the past 33 years?”
Speaking of the poll debacle, Mr. Bhattacharjee said: “It demands introspection as to why we find ourselves in this situation. We have to come out with a solution.”
Biman Bose, Secretary of the CPI(M)’s West Bengal State Committee, said that people had taught the party a lesson and given it a chance to correct wayward party workers.
“That some people did not vote for us does not mean that they have rejected us. They wanted to teach us a lesson for the wrong-doings of a certain section of our activists… even we will not endorse such behaviour henceforth.” Mr. Bose said inefficient party workers would be shown the door unless they corrected themselves immediately.
(the hindu)
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