Left manifesto ignores land rows

The biggest concern of the Left Front in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls is to ensure that people do not cast their votes on the basis of burning issues like land acquisition. There's no other way to explain the complete omission of Nandigram and the passing reference to Singur in the Left Front partners' joint appeal to voters that was officially released by coalition chairman Biman Bose in Kolkata on Thursday.

“The government did not intend to set up any industry at Nandigram and declared the same long time ago. Why should we talk of it now,” Bose told the mediapersons. Singur found a mention, because the land “was acquired by the government and still belongs to the government.”

Interestingly the Left Front chairman kept insisting that a section of the media was trying to project that the election was one for the control of panchayats, civic bodies or the state assembly. “But that is not the case. This is an election to elect the government at the Centre. Local issues do not matter here. Voters should consider national issues.”