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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Twin faces of land reforms by Tamaghna Banerjee

Twin faces of land reforms by Tamaghna Banerjee

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published Published on Nov 27, 2010   modified Modified on Nov 27, 2010

Prosen Sam is a beneficiary of land reforms. Once a landless labourer, his life changed after the Left Front government gave him a three-bigha plot in 1984.

“I am still a farmer but my sons have their own businesses,” boasted the 65-year-old resident of Kurumba village in Birbhum, a proud participant in Friday’s rally by the Left Front’s farmer wings in Metro Channel.

The meeting, attended by around 4,000 people from across the state, was organised as part of a weeklong “reaching out” programme of the ruling alliance which is desperately trying to drum up support for the upcoming Assembly polls.

An avowed supporter of the CPM since he was 17, Sam has become a key constituent of what academicians often describe as “party society” in Bengal, which has kept the Left Front together for 34 years.

Sam is aware that his party’s grip on rural Bengal has loosened but can’t figure out why the solid support base the “poor man’s party” once had among farmers is fast eroding.

The CPM’s slide on the popularity chart, however, did not find mention in any of the speeches, suggesting that the leadership is in denial despite the series of electoral setbacks since the 2008 panchayat polls.

Had Sam spoken to Bhuban Ghosh, a Class VIII student of Andulia SS High School in Murshidabad’s Pashupatibati, he would have found an answer to his question on the ruling party’s dwindling votebank.

“I don’t understand politics… but my father has asked me to attend such rallies because that will ensure allotment of land to us. We are yet to benefit from land reforms,” Bhuban said, standing in Metro Channel.

The Left Front’s success in distributing land to landless labourers has become a case study but rural Bengal is replete with instances of favouritism in the allotment, as evident in the fate of the Ghosh family.

Desperate to win back rural voters, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government has stepped up the pace of distribution of land but many think it’s already too late.

Bhuban’s family may finally get a plot but the 16-year-old has other plans. “I don’t want to be a farmer,” he said.

Bhuban had left home on Thursday night and reached Howrah at 2am. He spent the rest of the night at the station.

But attending the rally was not his priority and before landing up at the venue with six others from the same village, he visited Victoria Memorial, Race Course and New Market.

While veteran CPM leader Benoy Konar kept denouncing the Congress-led UPA government for introducing the seed bill to “help multinational companies”, signing the nuclear deal with the US and encouraging corruption in awarding telecom licences, Bhuban and friend slipped out silently.


The Telegraph, 27 November, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101127/jsp/calcutta/story_13225514.jsp


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