PRAGOTI

this piece offers little more than rants against "intellectuals" who are critical of the CPM. the official mouth pieces of the cpm are already so full of them that the need for pragoti to carry such sub-standard stuff is not understandable. official poverty figures are quoted from the planning commission to show that poverty has gone down in west bengal more than elsewhere. since when has the CPM started believing in the official poverty estimates? and is the author claiming that there is no crisis in agriculture in west bengal? then why is the CPM government talking about industrialisation? the author's shrill rhetoric on democracy is pure humbug. if the CPM is so democratic, what action has been taken on the culprits of the "mistakes" of nandigram and singur? what about laxman seth, anuj pandey and many more such corrupt and anti-democratic elements who have risen in the CPM ranks today?

the author is guilty of the same vices that he is alleging against the detractors of the CPM - that of "vacuity". the tragedy of the people of west bengal today is that they are caught between two vacuities - that of the CPM and its government as well as that of the Mamata/Trinamool led opposition. one only expects a forum like pragoti to make a break from such vacuous phrase mongering and offer more substantive stuff.