The Hindu : Country on threshold of communal danger: Buddhadeb

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Dec 14, 2003

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Country on threshold of communal danger: Buddhadeb

By Our Special Correspondent

The West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya (right), being greeted by the CPI(M) leader, N. Sankariah, on the final day of the 11th conference of the CITU in Chennai on Saturday. M.K. Pandhe, CITU president (second from left), and A.K. Padmanabhan, joint convenor of the conference, are also seen. — Photo: R. Ragu

CHENNAI DEC. 13. "The country is on the threshold of communal danger and what had happened in Gujarat will spread to other parts of the country owing to the communal and casteist policies of the BJP-led NDA Government at the Centre," the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said here today.

Addressing a public meeting organised in connection with the 11th national conference of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) here, Mr. Bhattacharjee said that Gujarat riot was a blot on the country as people in the State were now divided on the basis of religion. Both the BJP and the RSS were trying to create a similar situation in other parts of the country by pursuing their policies, which were against the secular principles of the Constitution.

Claiming that West Bengal was free from communal and casteist riots, he attributed it to the people of the State who never allowed the BJP and the RSS to have their roots there.

Describing the NDA Government at the Centre as the worst in the country since Independence, he said its economic, foreign and nuclear policies were against the interest of the people, especially workers, women and minorities.

Making a veiled attack on the Tamil Nadu Government, Mr. Bhattarcharjee said the West Bengal Government's employees had not gone on strike in the last 27 years. The State Government had instructed the employees that they should not surrender their right to strike at any point of time, as it was their right.

Earlier, the conference called for a stronger, common movement of workers to change the policy of globalisation being pursued by the Central and State Governments.

The newly-elected president of the CITU, M.K. Pandhe, appealed to all trade unions to combat the onslaught of globalisation by supporting the nationwide strike called by Central and State Government employees on February 11, 2004. "There is no alternative to the working class to express our protest, not only against globalisation but also our protest against the Supreme Court observation. We have to fight to get the right of workers, including their right to strike for a genuine demand," he said.

Mr. Pandhe came down heavily on the Tamil Nadu Government and the Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, for unleashing "repressive measures" against the State Government employees for their agitation.

The newly-elected general secretary, Chittabrata Mazumdar, urged the need to form a system alternative to globalisation to save the people and for this the unity of workers, farmers and women and students was necessary, he said.

T.K. Rangarajan, vice-president, CITU, W.R. Varadarajan and A. Soundarajan, secretaries, R. Umanath, former vice-president, and N. Sankariah, chairman of the reception committee, criticised both the AIADMK and the DMK for pursuing "anti-workers policies."

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