Two stalwarts in their respective spheres had come together in 2006 to script a new path for Bengal and its youths. That their dream of building a car manufacturing unit in Hooghly’s Singur was shattered over land acquisition protests is now history.
Almost two decades later on a scorching Sunday at the packed Brigade Parade Ground, a young CPM supporter wore cutouts of the two men — former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and business tycoon Ratan Tata — on his head with the slogan “yubakder swapnobhango(death of youths’ dream)” written in red.
It signalled that the CPM in Bengal would make the lack of job opportunities in Bengal the pivot of its campaign during the 2026 Assembly polls, the bugle for which was sounded on Sunday.
“For the last 14 years, the government running Bengal has established a reign of corruption, hooliganism and autocracy. We are holding this rally at a time when 26,000 teachers have lost their jobs and lakhs of educated students and youths are leaving the state as there are no industries and no jobs in Bengal,” said Centre for Indian Trade Unions (Citu) leader Anadi Sahu to emphasise that the Left would highlight Bengal’s joblessness in its campaign.
Sahu, one of the speakers at the rally organised by four CPM-backed mass organisations — Citu, All India Kishan Sabha (AIKS), All India Agricultural Workers’ Union (AIAWU), and Paschimbanga Bustee Unnayan Samity, weighed chief minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the same scale, slamming Modi too for lack of jobs in the country during his tenure.
AIKS leader Amal Haldar said: “During the Left Front regime, Bengal produced the most paddy in the country. Under Mamata, the state has dropped to the fourth place in paddy production. Bengal loves its rice, there will be a day when rice will have to be procured from other states.”
Haldar warned that a possible bilateral trade agreement with America during US vice-president JD Vance’s visit to India starting Monday would hit farmers. The AIKS would hold mass demonstrations, burn effigies of the US vice-president and raise “Vance Go Back! India Is Not For Sale” slogans across the country, he said.
The speeches of AIAWU leaders Nirapada Sardar and Banya Tudu, who flayed state and central governments for their “anti-people” policies, won loud applause. Tudu, whose first major public speech was received well, said the people of the state and the country were being ruled by “thieves (in the state) and dacoits (in the Centre)”.
CPM state secretary Md Salim charged the TMC and BJP with working in tandem to communally polarise Bengal on the advice of the RSS.
“The fight cannot be over temples and mosques.... We communists will resist the rioters till our last. Our fight will be for education, health, jobs, dignity of women and people-to-people harmony,” Salim said, signing off his speech with an appeal for judicial probe into the Murshidabad riots.
