In separate articles in the latest issue of People’s Democracy, West Bengal CPM state secretary Biman Basu and Industries Minister Nirupam Sen talk about Ratan Tata’s Nano small car project pulling out from Singur and admit that this has harmed the state’s prospects for industrialisation.

“However, we do not want, by any means to halt our onward march for the development of Bengal’s economy, and to create jobs for the millions of young men and women of the state,” Basu adds.

Referring to the Trinamul Congress, he says it is a great irony that the destructive forces that always remained with the landlords, big and small, and rich peasants in rural Bengal suddenly started shedding crocodile tears for the marginal farmers and other victims of feudalism. “If we draw the correct lessons from the history of industrialisation, we find that all battles in Europe had to be waged seriously against the feudal elements,” he says.

Nanavati’s eyewash

The issue also carries an article titled “Hunter better than Nanavati” by B.B. Sreekumar, Gujarat’s former additional DGP. He says the Nanavati Commission report is better described as a whitewashing document than the conclusion of an enquiry: “This is an immature, partisan and inconclusive report which has a political motive. It can only be seen as a predetermined script. ”

Sreekumar says he had filed four affidavits in his capacity as a senior intelligence officer, about the situation that led to the riots and the roles of the senior officers in them. “The Commission had the responsibility to verify the truth about them.. [It] should also have recommended punishment for me had the affidavits been false. Instead of this, [it] canonised the perpetrators of the riots,” he claims.

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