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Buddha 'strikes' chord with party OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Calcutta, Feb. 17: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the CPM politburo member, today said he would "never commit" the "mistake" he had made during his tenure as chief minister by saying that bandhs were a disease. "I had earlier said that bandhs and strikes had become a disease, an ailment that plagues Bengal. That was a mistake. In my life, I will never commit this mistake again. I stand by what I am saying (now)," Bhattacharjee was quoted as saying by a CPM leader during a closed-door session of the party's state committee meeting in Calcutta. In 2006, the then chief minister had said at an industrialists' meet in Calcutta that it was "unfortunate that I belonged to a political party that has the habit of enforcing shutdowns". Asked about Bhattacharjee's turnaround, a CPM state secretariat member said tonight: "When Buddhada was chief minister, his main responsibility was to woo investors to Bengal. He had to build an identity of his own, removed from our party's hawkish stand on bandhs. But that wasn't liked by our trade union wing Citu. Now that he is no longer chief minister, he has to toe the party line as he doesn't need to play to the gallery anymore." A section of the CPM leadership also pointed out that Bhattacharjee's remarks were aimed at garnering support for the strike called by central trade unions, including Citu, on February 28. "Now is the time to stand by the party cadres. So why will Buddhada waste an opportunity to firm up his bond with the CPM's old constituency," a party leader said. Bhattacharjee also admitted some administrative "mistakes", those made in Singur and Nandigram and on the Maoist front, but cautioned the delegates attending the conference that corruption and high-handedness must be eliminated to win back the support of the poor. "Our government had committed mistakes in Singur and Nandigram. Because of various reasons, we could not combat the Maoists… they killed so many of our comrades. The situation in Darjeeling worsened because of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha agitation. Overall, there was an apparent lack of governance. I admit we had failed administratively in many areas in the last four years of our rule,'' the former chief minister said. "However, I have a word of caution for you all. We cannot afford to show high-handedness in our dealings with the public. We cannot entertain corrupt people in our party. The CPM has suffered a lot because of this. We need to reforge links with the poor people. For that, we must do away with such habits.''

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