Kolkata: The All India Forward Bloc leadership’s decision to give the party flag a new look, dropping the 'hammer and sickle' symbol, does not seem to have gone down well with all members of the organisation founded by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. The decision has widened rifts in the party, which is a constituent of the Left Front in West Bengal, news agency IANS reported.
The All India Forward Bloc announced its decision to change the flag after its two-day National Council meeting in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, in April this year.
The original AIFB flag, designed by Netaji, had the picture of a leaping tiger against a Tricolour background. The design was changed later to reflect the Communist ideology, and accordingly the background colour was changed to red and the ‘hammer & sickle’ inserted in 1952.
It now appears the party wants to shed its Communist tag.
"This decision is being taken to return to our roots to shift from the concept of communism to Netaji's path of socialism," AIFB general secretary Naren Chattopadhyay told IANS.
Ali Imran Ramz, a two-time former Forward Bloc MLA from Chakulia Assembly constituency in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal, however, said the decision was taken without consulting all concerned.
"We had been carrying our mass movements with this flag with a leaping tiger and hammer & sickle. Does the present leadership of the party feel that our legendary leaders like Late Ashoke Ghosh and ALate Chitta Basu were wrong in carrying this flag?" IANS quoted Ramz as saying.
According to the report, Ramz has also announced that he will form a new political outfit, ‘Azad Hind Fauj’, along with around 5,000 of his followers from different districts in North Bengal, and will move ahead with the old flag. Soon after his announcement, Naren Chattopadhyay issued the suspension order of Ramz and four other state committee members.
More Emphasis On 'Subhasism' Now
In his statement issued after the Bhubaneswar meeting in April, AIFB had said it had been observed that the ‘hammer and sickle’ on its flag and its proximity to Communist parties “lent credence to the propaganda that Forward Bloc was more a Communist Party than a Socialist Party”, which it said “somehow blocked the path of the Forward Bloc to grow as an independent Socialist Party”.
The party said while the hammer and the sickle are still the symbols of the basic working class, the size and character of the working class has changed and a new working class has emerged with the advancement of science and technology. “They, like the basic working class, make a significant contribution to the production process. In fact, at present, the service sector produces more GDP than other sectors. There is no justification to exclude the representation of this category of working class from the flag and banner of a working class party,” the statement read.
The new flag retains the red background and the ‘leaping tiger’, the symbol selected by Netaji Bose as that of “anti-compromise”, the party said. The council meeting also decided to give more emphasis on “Subhasism” — the ideology of Netaji based on “freedom, equality, justice, discipline and love”. The statement said the party will unleash a nation-wide campaign to propagate “Indian Socialism”.