Green Party in Red Bastion

Indian politics will soon see a change of colour, courtesy the GPI (no, we didn’t mean the CPI).

Indian politics will soon see a change of colour, courtesy the GPI (no, we didn’t mean the CPI). A Green Party of India, modelled on the lines of  the green parties of Europe and UK, is set to launch here. The man behind it is Subhas Dutta, chartered accountant and tireless activist who in 2007  singlehandedly took on the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government to shift Kolkata’s book fair, its biggest and proudest public event, out of the Maidan.

“The convention for green activists in February-March 2010 will serve as the platform for setting up the party. I have already started talking to people. Everybody, including industrialists and corporates, has shown a lot of interest. I am even getting inquiries from Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya and Orissa,” he says. Quite the pragmatist, he adds, “Environmental issues will be our focus, but not the sole concern. A one-point issue party will not sustain.”

Dutta says it is too early to think about contesting the 2011 West Bengal Assembly election. “We need to organise first and mobilise support on issues,” he says.

He is planning to reach out to other well-known Green activists like Medha Patkar, Vandana Shiva and MC Mehta for the party. “I’m also very keen on TN Seshan,” he says.

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Sohini Chattopadhyay