LEFT FRONT IN WEST BENGAL 13 an economic break-through in this state; and they would eagerly continue their efforts to maintain their grip over here. The Left Front has to operate within similar constraints that inevitably bind West Bengal. In no country, however, has the path of fundamental social transformation been ever strewn with roses. ^The main item on the agenda is the agrarian revolution which is the essence of the People's Democratic Revolution. Land reform measures such as redistribution of surplus land, protection of the interests of share-croppers, enforcement of minimum wages,, and so on, are essential steps in the correct direction; but all these are to be a part of a larger rearrangement.By themselves they add up to very little. The preparation for accomplishing that larger rearrangement may be much different in several respects from the one that is called for to implement even radical land reforms as such. There is bound to be some contradictions between the two; but certainly those are minor contradictions in the totality of the Indian situation. And they must be correctly handled through some sort of co-ordination. If so. West Bengal would be elevated to be the Yenan of India. If not, the current electoral victory of the Left Front in this state would be reduced to a passing phase—a mere freak of history—before West Bengal along with the rest of India falls in the iron clutch of the ^wheat-and-whisky9 axis. And another dark, long night would befall the nation. 1 Ranjit Sau, "Indian Political Economy, 1967-1977: The Marriage of Wheat and Whisky", Economic and Political Weekly, April 9, 1977. ^ This section is taken from the author's "Economic Growth and Class Relation", Seminar; December 1977. s H Konar, ''General Secretary's Report", Agrarian 'Crisis in India and Tasks of Peasant Movement, Documents of the 22nd Conference of the All-India tC^san SAbha, April 1974, pp 41-42.