Bhattacharjee, Patnaik: ‘Serious’ differences

New Delhi, June 28: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee doesn’t want to criticise his front partners, but is happy to voice “serious” differences with economists like Prabhat Patnaik who advise the Left.

In an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN, to be shown on Saturday evening, the Bengal chief minister said these academics are cut off from reality.

“I have read what Mr Prabhat Patnaik has written,” he said during the half-hour conversation. “I don’t agree with what Mr Patnaik has said.”

The CPM leader said his party has gone through a number of crises and learnt to deal with them, but this “group” — alluding to the Left economists who advise his party — is “academic” and “not in touch with reality”.

“I have serious differences with his (Patnaik’s) views on industrialisation,” he added.

One of the differences is over accepting loans from international financial institutions, such as the World Bank.

Patnaik — who heads the state planning board in Left-ruled Kerala, an assignment he took up at the invitation of chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan — is not in favour of states taking such loans. But Bhattacharjee said the last party congress in 2004 had agreed to accept the loans.

Asked for his reaction, Patnaik said: “There is really nothing to say about such comments.”

The chief minister said the CPM politburo, the apex decision-making body, fully backs him on industrialisation. “I have their complete support. My politburo is solidly behind me.” There was “no question” of a rollback, he said. “I cannot go back on the promise of generating jobs. That was the mandate.”

“I have learnt my lessons from Nandigram,” he said. “There will be no rollback but I will proceed cautiously.”

On his uneasy relationship with the Left Front partners, Bhattacharjee said they had come together on an anti-feudal platform in which land reforms played a big part. Now that the government was moving towards use of private capital, the partners were not able to comprehend the changes.

Asked if the partners had done justice to crucial portfolios like agriculture and cooperatives in the past 30 years, he said: “After all, it’s a coalition government. I should not criticise my partners.”