Bhattacharjee at the meeting at Rani Rashmoni Avenue on Monday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Calcutta, Nov. 16: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today asked those who once walked with him: “In the past 32 years, have we done nothing?”

“Let people judge us,” the chief minister said a short while later, standing before a multitude of supporters and staring at the gravest crisis the Left Front has faced in over three decades.

“To those who walked in our processions, to those who are marching with the Opposition with deep worries on their mind, I am asking: In the past 32 years, have we done nothing?” Bhattacharjee said at a Left Front rally in the heart of Calcutta today.

The impassioned question — bordering on despondency — was the chief minister’s first allusion in public to the state of politics in Bengal since the CPM’s bypoll debacle.

The line “those who are marching with the Opposition with worries on their mind” was a reference to singer and Trinamul MP Kabir Suman who had yesterday hit out at the party that sent him to Parliament. ( )

But a non-combative — an uncharacteristic feature on a public Left podium — Bhattacharjee did not attack Mamata Banerjee with the intensity usually seen at such meetings, though he asked the “Trinamul leadership” to stay away from the Maoists.

Instead, he focused on farmers, writers, actors and artists who have deserted the party, and reminded them of the Left-generated ambience that “let a hundred flowers bloom”.

“Efforts are going on to break our support base on the basis of certain poll results. A section of the media is saying that the Left has no future in Bengal as we had delivered nothing. But did we do all wrong in 32 years?”

“Amra Paschimbangake samner dike egiye niye jete cheyechhilam (We had wanted to take Bengal forward),” Bhattacharjee added in the tone of a misunderstood leader.

It is not clear whether his choice of the past tense in describing his government’s efforts was deliberate or a slip of the tongue but some listeners heard in it the echo of the sense of resignation that has set in among the Left rank and file. Such an air did hang heavy over the meeting — organised to protest price rise — prompting many leaders to parrot what became the theme song: “Hatash haben na (Don’t lose hope).”

The chief minister indirectly reminded the audience of the Assembly elections ahead. “We have always reposed our faith in people and I reaffirm it in these critical hours. Let people judge us.”

Bhattacharjee listed what he felt were the accomplishments of the front, taking care to address sections like farmers, minorities, the Scheduled Castes and tribals. He mentioned land reforms, increase in rice production and equal opportunities, plus Mamata’s past alliance with “the Babri-demolishing BJP”.

For writers, actors and artists who had left him for Mamata, Bhattacharjee had this message: “Remember, the intellectuals would not have enjoyed the freedom had the Left not been in power. We ensured the ambience for a hundred flowers to bloom.”

However, Bhattacharjee defended the drive for industrialisation. “We knew it would be difficult when we had begun industrialisation. But we never forgot the interests of the farmers when we pursued industry. We wanted industry and want it even today as it is needed in the interests of farmers’ children.”

The chief minister said his government was looking forward to setting up industry in Singur “in collaboration with the Centre”.

The CPM’s allies felt that Bhattacharjee’s mollifying mission should have included an “admission of mistakes, particularly on the land acquisition drive”. But CPM leaders close to Bhattacharjee said he had already “confessed enough”.