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| Basu defends industrialisation |
| Out of the Left Front's 30 years in West Bengal, Jyoti Basu was the chief minister for 23 years.
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| INDIA
, 20-June-2007
3:34:39 AM |
| The Left Front will celebrate 30 years in power in West Bengal on Thursday.
However, on the eve of the day, veteran communist leader Jyoti Basu has said that much more needs to be done, especially in the area of unemployment.
Out of the Left Front's 30 years in West Bengal, Jyoti Basu was the chief minister for 23 years.
Early in his tenure, there were 40 lakh people without jobs in the state. However, in the last 30 years, that figure has fallen to 33 lakh.
But that, he admits, is simply not good enough.
''The number once rose to 40 lakh in our employment exchanges. It has since fallen to 33 lakh. But that is terrible and many are educated unemployed. That's why we need industry. We need large scale, medium and small industry,'' said Jyoti Basu, Leader, CPI (M).
By arguing that industrialisation is the only answer, Basu has put to rest the speculation that by meeting Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee on Singur and Nandigram a fortnight ago, he had meant to snub his successor Buddhadeb Bhattacharya.
He also said that a healthy rehabilitation package is planned for the land losers and that Mamata's brand of politics would lead nowhere.
''Some people are getting it wrong; I have told Mamata that. In Chief Minister Bidhan Roy's time, we demanded workers' rights.''
''But we never prevented industrialisation. What's the point of breaking down factory walls and bombing and killing people? Will it help Bengal progress?'' said Basu.
Basu may have reservations about the way the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government has gone about its industrialisation drive so far.
But blood is thicker than water, and on the eve of the Left Front's 30-year celebrations, there is no room for any equivocation.
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