Wednesday, April 3, 2013

West Bengal LF appeals to Governor to solve panchayat poll impasse


Accusing ruling Trinamool Congress of hatching a conspiracy to delay panchayat polls, the Opposition Left Front today met Governor M K Narayanan seeking his intervention to end the stand off between West Bengal government and State Election Commission over the elections.

"We met the Governor and appealed to him to intervene and start a conciliatory approach in solving the problem because we want panchayat elections to be held on time," Left Front chairman Biman Bose told reporters after the meeting.

Bose accused the Trinamool Congress of hatching the  pre-planned conspiracy and forcing the SEC to look for legal recourse and claimed that all ministers were not aware of it.
Only Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee and Trinamool Congress General Secretary Mukul Roy were party to it, he said.

"Mukherjee was given the duty of creating confusion by triggering a tiff with the SEC. Roy was given the duty of defending the ruling party's image in the public," Bose alleged, adding that the Trinamool is trying to buy time by delaying the process of the grass root polls.

"The government doesn't have any achievements to showcase. And, the Trinamool is plagued by infighting and factional feud, so it is trying to buy time before the panchayat polls to tackle those problems," he said.

Bose claimed that after the end of present rural bodies' tenure, they will stop getting funds for development schemes from the Centre.

Asked whether the LF will explore legal options over the stalemate, Bose said, "We have not discussed the matter."  The state government and the SEC have locked horns over the schedule of the polls.

While the state government has announced that the elections will be held in two phases under supervision of the state police, the SEC has proposed that the polls be held in three phases under supervision of central forces.

Death of Comrade Sudipto will not go in vain! Intensify the struggle against Mamta Banerjee’s authoritarian rule in West Bengal!



Central Executive committee of the Students’ Federation of India dips its banner in the memory of Comrade Sudipto Gupta, a state committee member of the West Bengal State committee, who succumbed to fatal injuries today, while a protest in Kolkata was severely lathicharged by the police. The brutality was so severe that even his eyeballs came out. This incident brought back the haunting memories of the Bidhan Chandra Roy’s regime when police used such brutal measures against the protesters. The death of the brave, young 23 year old boy speaks volumes about the state of democracy in West Bengal under the Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee’s regime.

This protest was called by the 4 left students’ organizations against the series of moves by the state government which seek to curb campus democracy, the most retrograde of which plans to limit the students’ union elections to once every 2 years. What really made the ruling masters fear to this extent that they had to cut short this young life? History has all the answers. Even during the regime of semi-fascist terror of the 1970s, the campuses of West Bengal were the dens of resistance. Today when Mamta Banerjee is leaving no stone unturned to again take back Bengal to that dark period of terror, it is again from the campuses that the voices of resistances are picking up and joining with those struggling outside. Be it the curb on campus democracy or the cold blooded murder of Sudipto Gupta- everything reflects this fear. But, let it be made clear that the martyrhood of our brave comrade shall not go in vain. In the coming days the struggle against the authoritarian regime of Mamta Banerjee shall become sharper and sharper.

The Central Executive of the Students’ Federation of India calls for an All India Protest day on 4th April across the campuses and units of the country against this heinous attack on the democratic rights, when the students of West Bengal will go for a massive statewide strike.