Bose said that it was time to bring in a mindset conducive to “change”. “At present, there is a conspiracy to make people resist to any sort of changes,” he said.

He admitted that the political and economic framework of the country post-1991 has made it very difficult to protect the interests of the common man — the farmers and the labour class.

Bose was speaking at the release of the book Bikalper Sandhane (In Search of an Alternative), a compilation of essays by Nirupam Sen. The book release held at the Alimuddin Street was also attended by the chief minister. Jyoti Basu had written the foreword of the book.

Sen said that CPM had drawn flak for some of the steps it had taken in recent times from the Left, ultra-Left and the Right.

“But we are treading an untraversed path. Nobody has taken this path before and no one has told us specifically how to go about it,” he said. Since its inception till now, the party had to undergo an ideological change given the changed political and economic context in the country after 1991, he added.

“We are searching for an alternative and we know that ours cannot be the only alternative. We are open to suggestions,” said Sen.