A question I often get goes, “How have the communists stayed in power for 33 years in West Bengal?” ”Land reforms” as an answer draws a blank, while “delivering things to the rural electorate” is met by disbelief, cynicism, or dismissiveness reserved for political junkies like me.
But that is the unvarnished truth celebrated in this great article by Harish Damodaran in Business Line. Soon after coming to power in the late 1970s, the communists implemented two major institutional reforms:
- Operation Barga granted 15-lakh sharecroppers rights to the lands they had been tilling and
- Enabled devolution of powers to the panchayat level for a wide variety of agricultural investments.
These investments have paid off in the past three decades and today West Bengal occupies either the first or second position in the production of a number of agricultural products. The agricultural sector in the state has grown from 0.7% during 1970-83 to 5.4% during 1983-95.
Not only did “land reforms” generate political rewards but also sustainable development. Good politics is always good development.
Posted by isarathi 
