Buddhadeb in a hurry

chief minister buddhadeb bhattacharjee and some of his colleagues appear to be young men in a hurry. in a hurry to present a picture of the state as investor and upper middle class friendly, they are not prepared to be seen as just being representatives of the toiling people. in the process of bringing about this image change, they are perhaps creating problems for themselves and thereby the party as a whole. the young owe nothing to the old, is the kind of maxim that they have adopted for themselves or that is how it appears to any observer. so, they have decided to go along with their urban critics and without saying so in so many words, they have acknowledged that the past 24 years under jyoti basu should be written off as being full of mistakes and a new beginning made. in trying to do so, they are actually coming closer to the liberal policies of the nda government even as they still condemn delhi at the drop of a hat. take the industrial scene. hardly a day passes when the chief minister does not make one statement or the other to establish his government's pro-investor credentials. to do this he naturally has to repeat warnings to the trade unions that "misbehaviour" shall not be tolerated. he is earning a lot of praise for this but what about the party? a party of the working class indirectly threatening the same class almost in the same voice as that of arun shourie and arun jaitley? and will the party speak in the same voice in kerala or elsewhere where it is not in office? today it has become the magic word and bill gates the devata to be worshipped. as for the problems of the traditional heavy industries, the attitude appears to be, "keep your eyes shut and these will disappear". about the new investors, bhattacharjee would perhaps do well to remember that the process of their showing interest in the state had started at the time of jyoti basu. he would also do well to remember that it was basu who had to fight a real tough battle within the party itself when he had mooted the idea of having haldia petrochemicals in the joint sector. he won that battle and also the one to get the party to accept that the private sector was a part of life and had to be accepted. bhattacharjee is certainly entitled to reap the benefits of those battles but not entitled to accept the credits of having ushered in a "new age" all on his own. the softer spoken nirupam sen perhaps should also keep this in mind. now for the health minister. would he have been able to introduce his reforms if the battle referred to earlier had not been fought by the old man? and what has he done on his own? raise hospital charges in a manner which should earn for him accolades only from the high priests of disinvestment. is he prepared to accept that, or his party? as for work culture, a look at the country as a whole would reveal that everywhere the government machinery moves at around the same pace and it is unfair to accept the somewhat untenable criticism of west bengal on this score. also shouldn't the norms apply to the upper echelons of the bureaucracy? but then they belong to the class which needs to be pleased. the present dispensation in writers' buildings is also seeking to create an impression that the administration should function dissociated from the party. this of course is the theory of the ideologues of the right and perhaps has its merits. but communists seeking to follow the same line are bound to come into conflict with their own kin. it went to jyoti basu's credit that even with all his practical sense, he had never allowed this to happen, as he had kept in mind the compulsions of the party in the country. in his hurry the present chief minister appears to be have forgotten that responsibility. but seeking to rise above the party to live up to the image of a messiah may actually boomerang which will help neither him nor the state.