THE LEFT Front Government’s PWD minister Kshiti Goswami of Left constituent, the Revolutionary Socialist Party, (RSP) has decided not to resign after all over the Nandigram issue. The minister had written to his party bosses expressing a desire to resign taking moral responsibility soon after the violent recapture of areas by CPI (M) cadres and hinting at his displeasure with the Marxists.

 

Today, the RSP state secretariat met to discuss the issue and decided not to allow Goswami to put in his papers, Debabrata Banerjee RSP state secretary said. Requests for him not to resign came all left quarters. Jyoti Basu wanted Goswami to stay on for the sake of left unity. Biman Bose ditto. Veteran Forward Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh and CPI leader Nandogopal Bhattacharya, minister for Water Resource Investigation and Development also pitched in asking the PWD minister not to quit and requested the RSP not to allow him to do so.  

 

The RSP has decided to stay in the Left Front and carry on its fight against the CPI (M) from within.

 

In the 30 years that the Left government has been in power its constituents, the RSP, CPI and the Forward Bloc have crossed swords with the CPI (M) many a time over diverse issues. Mostly, however, it has been over the attitude of the Marxists who have all along behaved like Big Brother given its numbers in the state legislative assembly. Such treats have been made earlier but rarely carried through.