It’s the first time in the history of ‘Red Bengal’ that the state has a ‘reformist Marxist’ at the helm of its affairs. And mind you, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee doesn’t hesitate advocating the need for MNCs to make West Bengal their home, despite strong opposition from his Polit Bureau colleagues.
But what’s the ground reality and where does ‘Marxist Bengal’ stand as far as execution of economic and administrative reforms is concerned?
Despite an effort by the CPI(M) top brass to create a consensus among its leadership on some areas of reform, West Bengal is fast losing out to other states in key areas of reforms such as removal of the Urban Land Ceiling Act, amendment in contract labour laws or making accountability and technology a part of public sector reforms.
Says Bhaskar Chakraborty, a faculty member with IIM, Calcutta, “It’s not difficult to close-down sick and unviable public sector units. The government can provide early retirement schemes and create re-skilling facilities for the retrenched workers, who form a small segment of the organised working population, with little impact on the Left vote bank.”
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