The Left started off impressively by kicking off a social engineering agenda and heralding revolutionary land reform which helped entrench it in rural Bengal. Operation Barga, a three-tier panchayat system aimed at decentralising democracy, a three-tier health service system and the food-for-work scheme were its flagship programmes. Several innovative social sector schemes won it the support of the poor. The success of the Left government in decelerating rural poverty, which was 73 per cent in 1973-74, was unparalleled.
However, its radical agenda was handicapped by several factors in the last two decades. For example, fragmented land holdings, which helped decelerate poverty, became a disadvantage in the liberalisation era with the increasing cost of production, thanks to the Centre's policies. The small and marginal farmers also bore the brunt of a credit squeeze, because banks did not give them loans.
Thus, the biggest achievement of the Left — land reform — stopped yielding dividends to the poor. Besides, the Left's own blunders in not taking up irrigation projects, perpetuating contractor raj and its failure to strengthen public sector units affected the State's agricultural and industrial growth.
By Viswanath V
Published: The Hindu
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