In West Bengal, the past continuously pulls back the present. The efforts initiated by the chief minister of West Bengal, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to bring back investment and work culture to the state have all been undone by the transport strike on Monday. The strike was called by the West Bengal Road Transport Workers? Federation, an organization fully backed by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions, which in turn is a front body of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Thus Monday?s strike was supported by the Left Front which rules West Bengal. West Bengal is in a bizarre situation where the chief minister is running from pillar to post to secure investment for the state, but the government that he heads actually supports a strike. This contradiction is inexplicable and untenable. Mr Bhattacharjee must decide what he wants. He cannot want investment and then stand by and watch the Left Front support a strike that virtually brings work in the state to a standstill. The left believes that this strike will enable it to put pressure on the Central government on the issue of raising oil prices. This is a piece of pure delusion. Monday?s strike will have no impact whatsoever anywhere outside West Bengal.

The strike will have an impact on West Bengal which will be a negative one. The left might think that it is making a political point in its own bailiwick, but in reality it is only upsetting Mr Bhattacharjee?s applecart. Mr Bhattacharjee has a one point agenda. He wants to build up confidence among investors regarding West Bengal. Industrialists must be convinced that work and production are not disrupted in a communist-ruled state before they can decide to put their capital in the state. He cannot achieve this if his own government actually goes out of its way to support a strike that stops all transport and thus stops people from going to work. This can, by no stretch of the imagination, send out the right signals to potential investors. Between the personal regard that most industrialists have for Mr Bhattacharjee and the conviction that he can implement all that he is promising falls the shadow of Monday?s strike. And it is by no means the first time that work has been disrupted in Bengal by left parties despite Mr Bhattacharjee?s best intentions. Much more than the chief minister?s personal goodwill is at stake in the support that the Left Front extends to meaningless strikes and protests.