A day after he left New Delhi with the stamp of approval for his reforms agenda from the politburo and central committee, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s party has this advice for its leaders: be vigilant while taking up issues and making statements so that they are not misrepresented or misunderstood.CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters that the central committee, which concluded its three-day meeting today, had adopted a party position on the way various issues were raised by leaders. ‘‘We have to be concerned about the manner in which some statements are made,’’ he said.While such a party position had not been articulated for Bhattacharjee alone, he was the most likely reason for it. His statements in Singapore and Indonesia last month have led to protests from Left Front partners in West Bengal, which the party leadership is still trying to resolve through ‘‘bipartite meetings’’. A Left Front meeting has been scheduled for tomorrow.The West Bengal CM’s statement about 100 per cent FDI in a greenfield airport project had raised the hackles of CITU, the CPI(M)’s trade union wing. Yechury said that it was such confusion that the party wanted to avoid. ‘‘The law says that you cannot have more than 49 per cent FDI, so where is the question of getting 100 per cent FDI?’’ he said.Biman Bose, the Left Front chairman in West Bengal, was reluctant to comment on what transpired in the central committee on the issue. ‘‘All issues that needed to be resolved, were resolved,’’ he said.Yechury said that the central committee mostly took up for discussion the political resolution adopted by the politburo. This included the Bihar elections, the question of resuming UPA-Left coordination meetings, the bills yet to be passed by Parliament, influencing the Centre to adopt ‘‘pro-people’’ policies, the oil price hike, the trade union strike on September 29 and, of course, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.The central committee endorsed the politburo’s suggestion that the secular vote in Bihar should not be split. With the Congress and the RJD coming together, it was Ram Vilas Paswan’s LJP that needed to be brought on board. But a senior politburo member said the party seemed reconciled to the fact that this may not happen.Yechury said the Congress, RJD and LJP ‘‘should decide how they’ll be together (in Bihar).’’ Politburo member and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu said, ‘‘All secular forces must come together in Bihar. But that’s not happening, it seems.’’But the central committee didn’t discuss the party in Kerala, which is riddled with infighting. Yechury said the state committee had discussed the matter and party’s state secretary, Pinarayi Vijayan, had submitted a report on the issue.
