From Foes with Love: Fall of the Left

I have been mulling like many others in the Left over the spectacular fall of the Left Front government in West Bengal after 34 years of rule. Perhaps, the metaphor is not apt particularly from someone who is a sympathiser of the Left Front - the fall itself seems like the burning of the effigies of Ravan, Meghnad and Kumbkaran during Dussehra. Like in the myth it is known to all that the fall is inevitable, and when the effigies are erected in a public open field people go past it, sometimes admiring it but with the full awareness that on the appointed evening it will be reduced to ashes. And yet a crowd gathers on the Dussehra evening to participate in, witness, facilitate and celebrate the fall. In West Bengal, however, the Dussehra was scheduled for 13 May 2011.

Responses to the fall have been many - let us leave aside the predictable responses from the TMC or the CPI(M) camp. Nothing much need be said of the TMC for they are only too happy to celebrate their victory by entering into a spree of 'revenge' killings. The CPI(M) in its analysis has once again reiterated that they have learnt their lessons. What are the lessons on the menu are doubtful. This line on 'correction' was put forward during the election campaign. However, the conduct of the CPI(M) leadership in the election campaign itself betrayed this emotion. Other than the most unfortunate and much condemned statement made by Anil Basu, we saw Buddhadeb Bhattacharya announcing at Singur that 'factory wahin banayenge' - I wonder what is the wisdom of rubbing such wisdom into wounds still fresh. And Gautam Deb was vehement that the government had made a mistake by allowing Mamata Banerjee sit on a dharna at the National Highway at Singur - 'amader macha bhenge deowa uchit chhilo [we should have demolished her tent]'.

On the one hand the neo-liberal types in the media - like the obnoxious Sagarika Ghosh and Meghnad Desai have suggested that the Left should go the Social Democracy way. This is actually hilarious, if there is any lesson to be learnt from the Nandigram and Singur agitation and similar agitations against land acquisition across the country - peoples' rights have to be strengthened. The Left in West Bengal was receiving flak for violating democratic principles and not for sticking to them. These are the the primary foes of the Left who want to have a chuckle at its sorry state and would be happy for the Left to leave all together.

The more serious set of articles come from another set of scholars who are democratic minded and often take recognisably Left positions on issues - yet nevertheless shying away from any form of organised participation in politics. Such scholarship have the following points to make:

1. The Left Front which came to power in 1977 did so riding on the hopes of the people of West Bengal for a democratic alternative. The Left Front, according to these commentators did work well in living upto that hope for about 10-15 years of its rule.
2. Beyond this 10-15 years the Left Front lost it! They betrayed the people and turned neo-liberal.
3. This phase was also characterised by an oppressive presence of the party machinery, to the extent of interfereing in personal and family affairs of the people. This machinery actually was a rent collecting structure which made the already meagre public services distant for the common people. This machinery penetrated all known sectors of public machinery from culture to the police. Even though Singur and Nadigram provided the immediate reason for the 'regime change', it was a release from this oppression that the people desired.
4. This machinery which existed at the lower levels could not be tackled as the upper echelons of the CPI(M) had become ideologically bankrupt - either they were given over to the neo-liberal doctrines as in the West Bengal CPI(M), or like Prakash Karat at the Central Leadership an inflexible and unthinking orthodoxy. Both viewpoints, however, agree that all levels of the CPI(M) are plagued by arrogance.
5. And, of course, added to this was the neo-liberal eventuality where the Left Front intervened with force at Singur and Nandigram (some of this articles actually recall that there never was a proposal to acquire land at Nandigram), on behalf of corporate land grabbers.

According to this thesis therefore, the loss of the Left Frond a.k.a CPI(M) in West Bengal is no great loss to the democratic movement in India, in fact, it is a positive development. Most of these articles have declared the CPI(M) dead and look forward to a post-CPI(M) Left in India.

Not all the afore mentioned criticisms of the CPI(M)-Left Front are baseless. In fact, such ideas have been articulated even by certain allies of the CPI(M)! Whether well intentioned or otherwise this criticism needs to be heeded and the CPI(M), assuming that it is not dead yet, has to think creatively for the future.

However, such soul searching may not be fruitful without paying attention to a few other points which the many Friends and Foes of the CPI(M) have missed in this analyses:

1. The spectacular fall was preceded by the spectacular rise. In 2004 and 2006 the Left Front won unprecedented mandates in both the Centre and the State. It is possible that the catharsis for the people of Bengal came late but it is impossible to ignore the importance of the land acquisition events to explain the timing of the catharsis. Possibly, people were willing to tolerate an arrogant CPI(M) for they still were unsure of the vitriolic nature of the TMC. It was when the pro-poor tag was shattered by the Nandigram firings that the catharsis was magically reached.
2. Will the situation in Bengal be any different now that the CPI(M) is out of power? None of these articles have even glossed over the prospect of life under the TMC!
3. The Left Front still enjoys 41% of the popular vote, enough to have resulted in a landslide victory in most other Indian states. Why have these 41% stayed on with the Left Front? Are they likely to wander away now that the Left Front is out of power?

I have earlier after the Lok Sabha 2009 results reflected on certain issues facing the Left Front which I think are relevant even today [The Debacle of the Left in India]. However, I must note that there has been a significant silence from Left academicians and intellectuals on the Left's defeat in West Bengal. I feel at a time when the CPI(M) is in a publicly announced state of introspection it is useful to speak up.

Let us remember, that though the Ravan effigy is burnt, it returns again to stand tall. And in some traditions Ravan is the hero and Ram the villain.