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Basu and his men tighten their belts

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

In order to tighten the slack West Bengal administration, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday summoned all its ministers to a meeting at the state party headquarters at Alimuddin Street.

The move follows the West Bengal CPI-M leadership's severe criticism of some government departments during the 19th state party conference. The Marxist leadership also wanted to improve the co-ordination between the administration and the party.

This is significant in view of the ruling Marxists sparing no efforts to woo investment, even from multinationals.

When the CPI-M came to power in West Bengal in 1977, the state party was headed by Pramode Dasgupta. During its first stint in power, the party had a firm grip over the state administration. The government could not take even minor decisions without consulting the powerful state CPI-M secretariat.

After Dasgupta's death in 1982, the party's grip over the state government declined. Neither Saroj Mukherjee nor Sailen Dasgupta, who succeeded Dasgupta, could exert their influence on the government. CPI-M politburo member and West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu called the shots.

The last state CPI-M conference witnessed a change of guard. Failing health compelled Sailen Dasgupta to step down. However, neither his successor nor the new state secretariat was announced.

After the CPI-M congress in Calcutta, the West Bengal secretariat was finally announced with central committee member Anil Biswas as the state secretary. Biswas edits the party's Bengali daily,Ganashakti. He also heads the central committee's special unit which will redraft the CPI-M's political programme.

Earlier, Biswas was a critic of Jyoti Basu and opposed him on the issue of joining the United Front government at the Centre. But over the last two years he has become closer to Basu, which is why he could edge out another powerful central committee member, Biman Bose, who does not see eye to eye with Basu.

After taking up the party's reins, Biswas realised that all was not well in the West Bengal government vis-a-vis the party. In consultation with Basu, a four member sub-committee comprising the chief minister, Home Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Finance Minister Dr Asim Dasgupta, and Land Reforms Minister Suryakanta Misra, was formed. The committee held discussions with Biswas and decided to convene a meeting of party ministers.

During the last state CPI-M conference various government departments came under flak. Party delegates alleged that the government's style of functioning had tarnished the CPI-M's image. They severely criticised the poor performances of the departments of power, health, education, public works department, transport, and to a certain extent the police administration, which is headed by Bhattacharya, another powerful CPI-M central committee member and Basu's likely successor.

Though power-cuts are no longer common in Calcutta the power department was pulled up for its slackness in rural electrification. Delegates did not spare the public works department for the poor conditions of national highways and roads, while they sought improvement in the transport network and healthcare system. The party leadership admitted that while there had been expansion of education in West Bengal the quality of learning had not improved.

The CPI-M leadership also noted with concern that the performance of state government employees, most of whom belonged to the CPI-M-affiliated co-ordination committee, was far below expectation. It also did not spare the police which it accused of being partisan at times.

With the Trinamul Congress winning seven seats in the last Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party making its debut in West Bengal and the erosion of the Left vote bank, the CPI-M realised it was time to pull up its socks and improve the functioning of the state administration.

The sub-committee prepared a draft suggesting guidelines for each minister and distributed it among them. From now on each minister has to report progress on various projects to this sub-committee. No decision can be taken without consulting the committee that will monitor each ministry closely.

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