PRAGOTI

Shantanu De Roy

It is highly unfortunate that Mr.Shamser Singh—a well wisher of the Left movement and former SFI member but not from JNU—has failed to appreciate the concerns of well wishers of the Left movement and former SFI members from JNU…Indeed, a serious limitation from the side of a “well wisher”… Be that as it may, it would not be improper to some points that Shamser had raised…I should start from another post that was published in the Pragoti some days ago (see http://pragoti.in/node/4710#comments)…Let me quote some passages of Mr. Shamser’s comments…He mentioned, among (many) others, “in my view this is not a correct fact as far as WB's electoral results are concerned, Left has always been a beneficiary of this when Congress and Trinamool used to fight elections separately against Left. This division of votes has benefited Left in one after another elections (not to say that this used to be the sole or main factor of Left's victory but yes it has played a role),….” This is political naïveté, to say the least…Any serious student (or activist) of West Bengal politics will deny this…To believe, that any right wing voter who has been voting for the right in Bengal for the last so many years, will suddenly vote for the Left due to coalitional bitterness is day-dreaming and shows loss of touch with reality and mass-contacts…IN ANY CASE THAT FELLOW WILL VOTE FOR THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE RIGHT CANDIDATE AGAINST THE LEFT…That has been the experience of left cadres and activists who had regularly campaigned for elections in Bengal…I would urge Mr. Shamser to look into the election results of West Bengal from May 2008…But then it depends on Mr. Shamser only, who is a well wisher of the Left movement and…..Also, TMC’s support to the UPA Presidential candidate (and naturally so) has come as a cropper on this whole issue of “creating a wedge between the Cong and TMC”…

Well, Mr. Shamser, to solve the problem is to go into the root of the problem…Isn’t it? What was the root of the problem? It is the issue of supporting a Congress nominated candidate for the post of President…What was Delhi State Committee’s (or for that matter All India SFI’s) position on this? Can you specify its position as a well wisher….well, there is none what so ever…JNU-SFI took the position of opposing Pranab’s candidature…It could not have taken an evasive position like the Delhi State Committee…It is possible in a politically charged atmosphere as prevails in the JNU…Yes, it was an independent position and how come that was in-discipline (since there was no position from the other side)…Can you explain? JNU-SFI, on many issues, earlier had taken independent positions…The question of discipline was not raised…Why now? If it is indeed taking disciplinary actions against 4 state committee members then why dissolve the entire JNU unit…Can you explain this “democratic” decision? This signature campaign is an effort to rectify these wrongs…To say that what you (Delhi State and All India SFI) have done was incorrect and would result in a drawback for the Left movement…It would be better for you if you go out into the streets of Calcutta and talk to Left minded people over support to Pranab…
Since you claimed to be a well wisher of the Left movement, I would urge you to ponder over certain issues that go well beyond the narrow confines of the JNU… Because, as they say, that we must “doubt everything” and not blindly and mechanically follow anything…You have been talking a lot about party decisions…Fair enough…Now, where (in which Party forum) was it decided that an ex-CM, will take a position like, “unfortunately I belong to a Party that calls bandh” and that too in a CII seminar…What action was taken against that leader? And how many comments you yourself have posted against this gross act of in-discpline? Where was it decided that “we were communists 70 years ago, now we are pragmatists”? if no decision was taken along these lines then this is violation, what action was taken? What is your position as a well wisher….Lastly, decision to support Pranab was in contravention to the political line adopted at the 20th Party Congress, the highest organ of the party…So, why not the decision to support Pranab be questioned on grounds of discipline…Can you please come up with a concrete and clear political argument….

Since, you are a well wisher of the Left movement and….I would want to inform you that CPI (M) in Bengal is moving towards political irrelevance…It is all-set to become a signboard party, similar to the CPI....Its cadres—the asset and backbone of the Party has become completely de-motivated—largely due to a callous and indifferent leadership that has lost all credibility among the masses at large and wrong political line that was adopted over the last 6-7 years…A well wisher should know that organization building is closely linked with political positions…And organization only grows or declines—it does not remain static…Currently, Party organization in Bengal is declining and it is declining pretty fast…Why? Do you have an answer to this? I am giving you one…it is adopting incorrect political line like supporting Congress candidates…You will very soon find out in the next Panchayat elections which will turn out to be a disaster for us… I could come up with more of these, if you want me to…For the time being, good bye…