Calcutta, Feb. 19: The CPM today ripped the gag that defeat had stretched across its mouth, singling out Mamata Banerjee's model of governance for an all-out attack that labelled the "one-person government" a "sarbanash" (disaster).
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Mamata's predecessor, led the onslaught at the Brigade where the CPM staged its first rally as an Opposition party after over three decades in power.
Estimates of the turnout varied from 1.3 lakh to 15 lakh, depending on who was counting (see chart on Page 7), but the multitudes erupted every time a speaker criticised the nine-month-old government.
Although the speakers dwelt on issues ranging from Trinamul's silence on alleged anti-people policies of the Centre to regular attacks on CPM supporters, a common thread ran through the speeches: the charge that the chief minister has failed to deliver on governance.
"We are not in power. There has been a change in West Bengal…. But what has happened with this change?" Bhattacharjee asked, playing on Trinamul's "paribartan" slogan.
Mamata had asked the Opposition not to criticise the new government for at least 10 years (she raised the threshold to 35 years this evening without mentioning the Brigade rally). Although CPM leaders had maintained silence on the government's affairs in the first few months, they spoke up today, articulating an assessment that the "initial euphoria" over Mamata was "over".
Surjya Kanta Mishra, the leader of the Opposition who delivered his first speech at the Brigade, took the battle directly to Mamata. "I have reports that the chief minister is at home now… She often switches on the TV to see what we are saying. If she is watching, I request her not to turn it off and listen to us," said Mishra, who drew the loudest applause from the audience with his pointed barbs at Mamata.
"This is a one-person government…. Others are immaterial as they don't know when their wings will be clipped," he said hinting at the regular churns in the Trinamul inner circle.
Today's was the first big meeting by the CPM since its rout in the Assembly polls last year. Several CPM leaders had admitted in private that they were not expecting much from the Brigade meeting as the organisational strength had depleted in the villages in the last few months.
The turnout, however, came as a surprise and that set the tone for the meeting. "We have never held such a big rally before. The turnout proves that we are standing on a firm footing," former chief minister Bhattacharjee said.
Aware that the incident in Park Street has put Mamata in a spot as police have confirmed the rape of a woman even after the chief minister had said that the complaint was fabricated, Bhattacharjee took a dig at his successor.
"An incident took place in Park Street… Without knowing anything about it, it was said that nothing has happened. One should try to know about it first," he said.
The Paschimbanga Ganatantrik Mahila Samity, the CPM-backed women's organisation, has already demanded an unqualified apology from the chief minister for her comments.
"The initial euphoria with her is over… The new government's lack of experience has been exposed and so it is the right time to launch the attack," said a CPM state committee member, explaining the timing behind the launch of the attack on Mamata.
Biman Bose, the party's secretary in Bengal, Prakash Karat, the general secretary, and Md Amin, a politburo member, also spoke at the meeting, organised as part of CPM's 23rd state conference. The last time the CPM was an Opposition party when it held a state conference was in 1972 in Midnapore.
As the main speaker at the rally, Bhattacharjee rolled out an action agenda and told the supporters to go back to farmers, agricultural labourers, workers in mills and factories and the workers in the unorganised sector. He, however, spent much more time on talking about the "sarbanash" (disaster) the new government has brought about in Bengal.
"The farmers are not getting buyers for paddy. Even if they are getting buyers, they are selling their produce at throwaway prices. Instead of getting Rs 1,080 per quintal, they are getting between Rs 600 and Rs 800. Is it the change they wanted to bring about?" asked Bhattacharjee, who also explained how growers of raw jute and potato were facing problems.
From the collapse of the panchayat system to deterioration in health care and failure in paying salaries to employees of transport corporations and impending trouble in power supply ' his 21-minute speech tore apart the new government. Unlike in the past, industry became a footnote in his speech as he focused on agrarian distress in Bengal.
In doing so, Bhattacharjee struck a chord with many in the audience, like Shamjan Mondal, a farmer from Karimpur in Nadia, who clapped in appreciation every time the former chief minister ' and other speakers ' held the new government responsible for the plight of farmers.
"The prices of all the inputs like fertilisers, seeds and diesel have gone up but our incomes have fallen. Even the government is not buying our produce," said Mondal.
Party general secretary Karat reeled off statistics ' 32 or 33 cases of farmer suicide in Bengal in eight months ' in his speech to attack the Mamata government, which, according to him, did not have a proper policy.
Mishra held the chief minister responsible for all the ills of the government. "Nobody knows how this government is running. They completed a year without even passing a budget," he said.
He also accused the chief minister of not responding to the 50-odd letters that he had sent her in the past nine months on diverse issues, ranging from attacks on CPM supporters to unconstitutional approach in tackling the crisis in the hills. "She hasn't even read the Constitution," he said.
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