Housing minister Gautam Deb admitted on Tuesday that complacency and monopoly of power from 1977 to 2009 had spelt disaster for the Left Front.
Admitting that a kind of complacency had set in among a section of the leadership, Deb said defeat in 2009 Lok Sabha and 2010 municipal elections came us wakeup calls and will make the difference between the probable eighth Left Front and earlier governments.
"We have learnt lessons from our mistakes and voters taught us a lesson. They defeated us in successive elections in 2009 and 2010. If we can form the eighth Left Front government, the work done by us will be remembered by the world for many years," Deb said at a news conference.
Charting out the mistakes committed by the seventh Left Front government, he said that following over intimacy with industrialists and vigorously projecting that in public, a feeling had developed among some voters that the Marxists have moved away from the poor.
"Even we discussed among ourselves that such a conception among the public is not right for us. Let the industrialists come and set up industries but we have to remember our commitment to fight poverty," said the housing minister.
He said that in case the eighth Left Front government is formed, time-bound responsibility parameters would be set. "If any minister is unable to perform or fulfil the responsibilities, he will have to quit within two years. Even top government officials will have finish assignments in time. If anyone fails, he will lose his job. The responsibility will be set from the top and not from the bottom," he said.
{{/usCountry}}He said that in case the eighth Left Front government is formed, time-bound responsibility parameters would be set. "If any minister is unable to perform or fulfil the responsibilities, he will have to quit within two years. Even top government officials will have finish assignments in time. If anyone fails, he will lose his job. The responsibility will be set from the top and not from the bottom," he said.
{{/usCountry}}Speaking on the occasion, Deb termed the idea that industries can be set up leaving aside farmland as utopian. "If anyone says that farmland cannot be taken then not a single industry will be set up.
Yes, we will have to avoid farmland as far as possible and ensure that acquisition must be based on unanimity," he said. Deb began the news conference in his typical hi-tech style of refuting different claims made by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee in a recent television channel interview. He was playing excerpts of her interview and replying to it point by point.
When reminded of Banerjee's claims that Deb, along with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and commerce and industries minister Nirupam Sen, might be defeated this time, Deb said, "If we loose and the Left Front bags 190 seats, there is no harm in that. There will be a new chief minister or a new housing minister and we will concentrate on party organisation."