Revival Options
- Introspect to see if failure is organisational or at the leadership level
- Relook assessment of political priorities in a fast-changing India
- With Left space shrinking, examine possibility of a CPI-CPI (M) merger
- Walk the talk: be more responsive to people and society than to dogma
- Rein in thuggish cadres. Bring back leaders who have quit the party.
- Keep the middle class in mind in an India moving from being a welfare state
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The Mamata sweep in West Bengal, the defeat in Kerala, another bastion, the backdrop of the debacle in the 2009 general elections—all this has added to the general apprehension that the space occupied by the Left parties may be shrinking. Communist veterans like A.B. Bardhan of the CPI and Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI(M) have spoken about this with quite some pain. "My agony is that the Left parties are becoming more and more irrelevant," Somnath told Outlook. Bardhan, on his part, warns the Left and its leaders to "either change or be out".
It's in the light of this decay of the Left that it is being asked if a reunification of the major Left parties, the CPI and the CPI(M), could stem the rot. Commentators wonder if such a reunion might make a difference to the fate of the Left, given that the historical reasons for the split in 1964 no longer apply and are no longer relevant.
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But the point is, none of these original differences are relevant in 2011: the Soviet bloc has collapsed; the Indian state has changed—at least a little—to become accommodative of a range of opinion; and, most importantly, corporate interests have grown to the detriment of the poor, creating for the Left a new arena of relevance. The CPI(M) even made a departure from its historical position to support the UPA government in 2004 to keep out "communal elements". When such an exception can be made, why should the burden of history prevent a reunification?
"Our party has always been willing for a merger, but the response hasn't been positive enough from the other side," says S. Sudhakar Reddy, deputy general secretary of the CPI. "We don't want to blame the CPI(M), but as the bigger party, it should realise the importance of Left unity. In the last two decades, we have come together on many issues. We have agreed on more issues than we have differed on." And D. Raja, CPI national secretary, points out that in 1993, his party even updated the preamble of its constitution to suit the changing times, but the CPI(M) still holds on to its earlier ideological position. "India is moving from being a welfare state to a neo-liberal state and many of our earlier assessments are no longer relevant," he says, and, recalling the time when Inderjit Gupta headed the CPI and Harkishen Singh Surjeet the CPI(M), adds that there was a joint circular issued to establish coordination between the parties. "It was just short of a merger."
But S. Ramachandran Pillai, a CPI(M) politburo member, still holds there are differences, at the philosophical, organisational and political levels. "If reunification has to happen, these have to be settled first. On basic ideological issues, we have grave differences, our tactics and strategies differ. On all immediate political issues, however, we are together," he says. "If you ask whether a merger is possible, the answer is 'yes'. But it may not happen. There are many historical reasons."
Somnath Chatterjee was initially hesitant to comment on his former party, the CPI(M), but opened up later. "The space occupied by the Left is shrinking. It is time for some change. One is not sure if the failure of the CPI(M) is at the organisational or the governance level, but there is certainly a growing distance between the people and the party. There is a smugness in the leadership. There is arrogance. Reunification of the two Left parties per se may not bring about any change. Whether they unite or not they should remain close to the people," he says.
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Leaders of both parties, however, concede there are major advantages to coming together, not least for the creation of a larger political base. "In terms of arithmetic, one plus one is two," says Raja. "But in politics, it's much more." The CPI(M) has a presence in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, while the CPI has a scattered presence in many states. "We can aspire to be a major opposition party in states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu," says Patil. "We can also make a dent in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where we have had a decent presence in the past." Some workers and office-bearers believe a reunification could bring about greater impact in Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The work of the mass reach-out organisations of the two parties, they say, could create a political force in these states.
Another challenge before the Communists is whether they should become social democrats, adapting to the broader Indian political climate. But the CPI(M) has an entrenched position on this: in its political education classes, anyway, the CPI(M) ridicules the CPI as a "social democratic party". There's strong resistance to such an ideological transformation on both sides.
And if confirmation of resistance to a possible merger were needed, one need go no further than the different responses of Bardhan and Brinda Karat of the CPI(M) to the present crisis in the Left. Bardhan wants the Left to connect with and become relevant to groups such as the emerging and aspirational middle class and the youth; Brinda says a review of mistakes will definitely take place, but, foreclosing any possibility of major change, adds that it won't lead to the kind of "reformed" Left its critics root for.
| ALSO IN THIS STORY |
THE LEFT A few things. For a balance in polity, a source of necessary dissent, they matter. |
THE LEFT Done in by their own hubris, Left intellectuals never learned to accept criticism |
LEFT & REFORMS Will the Left's losses lead to a surge in the economic reforms agenda? Not so fast. |
FOREIGN POLICY How actionable is the Left's instinctive anti-Americanism now? |
 OPINION It had been 'Ek dhakka aur do' time ever since 2009 Lok Sabha election —the power punch was delivered last week |
AUTHORS: SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU
TAGS: CPI | CPI-M | LEFT | LEFT FRONT
SECTION: NATIONAL
SUBSECTION: COVER STORIES
When the assembly election results started pouring in on May 13, foreign policy wonks, who rarely evince interest in any election other than the national polls, rejoiced at the Left's defeat in its red citadels of West Bengal and Kerala. "There is a sense of being vindicated by the Left's defeat," an Indian diplomat explains. "We always knew it had lost touch with the ground reality and the election results have proved just that."
The diplomat's observation is likely to have the endorsement of his fraternity, which learned to resent the Left's instinctive opposition to America—a stance that yields little diplomatic dividend in the post-Cold War era. This resentment turned into hostility and disbelief as the Left carped and created obstacles during the protracted negotiations for the Indo-US nuclear deal. Their opposition culminated in the Left withdrawing its support to UPA-I, oblivious of the fact that the people were either rejoicing over the nuke deal or were indifferent to it. But that's a thing of the past. "The nation isn't going to witness another nuclear moment in a hurry," says another diplomat. The irony is that the Left's decision to withdraw support diminished its clout at the Centre and heralded its decline in West Bengal.
For the moment, though, the Left's reversals of fortune won't have much of an impact on foreign policy. This is because the current UPA government, unlike its previous incarnation in 2004, isn't dependent on the Left's support for its survival. Should the Left's free-fall continue till 2014, when the Lok Sabha polls are scheduled to take place, then its pronouncements on foreign policy will truly become irrelevant. However, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta told Outlook, "The Left's relevance does not depend on its numbers in Parliament. We will continue to fight for the implementation of a foreign policy based on non-alignment and respect for peaceful coexistence with all our neighbours."
For the most part in post-Independence India, the Left has supported the government's foreign policy as it remained largely non-aligned, though, some would say, with a pro-Soviet tilt. The surfacing of differences between the Congress and the Left coincided with the disintegration of the USSR and India's efforts to improve its relations with the US.
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Observers, therefore, say the Left will oppose specific aspects of foreign policy that have an economic dimension—for instance, allowing foreign players into the retail and insurance sectors. "These are the areas where the government is likely to face stiff opposition from the Left, which may even find allies on such issues from other political parties," historian and political commentator Mahesh Rangarajan told Outlook.
These are also issues, which the general public can identify with, that will provide ammunition to the Left which, as its leaders say, has little option but to take to the streets now that it has been ousted from power. Dasgupta confirms, "There is no doubt that, in the changed circumstances, our interaction with the masses will increase." So those in the foreign policy establishment who are rejoicing at the Left's defeat may soon realise that democracy is not just about the numbers you have in Parliament. It's something that goes far beyond the corridors of power. It's about street power.
| ALSO IN THIS STORY |
THE LEFT A few things. For a balance in polity, a source of necessary dissent, they matter. |
THE LEFT Done in by their own hubris, Left intellectuals never learned to accept criticism |
LEFT & REFORMS Will the Left's losses lead to a surge in the economic reforms agenda? Not so fast. |
THE LEFT It would be best for CPI and CPI(M) to unite. Just a thought. |
OPINION It had been 'Ek dhakka aur do' time ever since 2009 Lok Sabha election —the power punch was delivered last week |
AUTHORS: PRANAY SHARMA
TAGS: DIPLOMACY & FOREIGN POLICY | LEFT | LEFT FRONT
SECTION: INTERNATIONAL
SUBSECTION: COVER STORIES
PLACES: USA
The Left has been in terminal decline all over the globe for decades now. Naturally, therefore, it had become somewhat of an anachronism in India too, though the 2004-08 period marked the high-watermark of its importance in national politics. The writing was on the wall and once UPA-I survived the trust vote in 2008, the CPI(M)'s unravelling began and it's been unstoppable thereafter. The Left's critics didn't have to plot a grand strategy to assist their demise: all that was needed was to demolish its edifice in Bengal, the last showpiece of Soviet-style authoritarianism.
Mamata Banerjee's alliance reduced the Left to a tremulous entity in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. It had been 'Ek dhakka aur do' time ever since—the power punch was delivered last week. The Left has been mauled in Bengal, it's reeling in Kerala, Tripura is too small to count and the Communists don't matter elsewhere anyway. So, it's not premature to write the political obituary of the Left in India.
It had exerted a disproportionate influence on national discourse for two reasons: the Left was the preferred ideology of the intelligentsia because of its alleged empathy for the poor. India's literati, chatterati and professorati were locked into an abiding romance with the Left, overlooking their myriad sins. The "intellectual" was always distrustful of the Congress but, more importantly, had a morbid distaste for nationalist politics, which found expression in their passionate hatred for the BJP.
Second, since Indira Gandhi turned "pink" after she broke with the "fuddy-duddy" Syndicate Congress in 1969, she gave the Left a respectability in mainstream politics it had been denied hitherto because Communists were seen as irrational, violent, frightening people. Left-oriented politics came up trumps thereafter. When Indira tried to remove the Left's clutches, it was too late and once she was routed in 1977, the Left not only emerged as a ruling force in three states but also appeared unstoppable in its upward electoral mobility.
During its three-and-a-half decades of dominance, what did the Left actually do? Besides hypocritical pontification, little else. Jyoti Basu is still held in awe by starry-eyed journalists and Communist cadre. But the man is actually guilty of West Bengal's deindustrialisation. He is responsible for demolishing such revered institutions of higher learning as Presidency College, packing college staff rooms with party apparatchiks, even goons. The Left systematically promoted a non-work ethic, so much so that it was jocularly said if revolution struck Bengal after 5 pm, government employees would demand overtime to participate! Its near-decimation in Bengal and ouster in Kerala will have one beneficial effect. Regional parties will stop looking to AKG Bhavan in Delhi for ideological inspiration and practical guidance. The manifestos of a wide array of regional parties—the TDP and Samajwadi Party, in particular—were dominated by leftist ideological tripe. Chandrababu Naidu even named his party's highest decision-making body the politburo. The Left enjoyed power without responsibility in several non-Congress coalition regimes at the Centre, starting with V.P. Singh's National Front and used this clout to block a series of economic reforms.
Admittedly, Sonia Gandhi is mesmerised by jholawalas and their spendthrift agendas forcing Manmohan Singh to virtually abandon economic reforms, though he is no longer shackled by the Left. But we know this too shall pass: either Sonia will discover her icons are false prophets and get disillusioned, or this government will be voted out in the next election, paving the way for further reforms. As in countries they once ruled, Communists curbed people's entrepreneurial drive and imposed statist mediocrity with disastrous results.
The intelligentsia's love affair with the Left, the stranglehold of Marxist ideologues over big universities and the Congress's past cooption of leftist ideas resulted in a spell of stagnation in key areas. It also depleted India's national resolve and self-esteem, for leftist views came to be associated with subversive ideas, bordering on insurrection and separatism. True, today even Naxalites don't spout their one-time slogan 'China's Chairman is our Chairman', but the Left is identified as a force that has never internalised the Indian ethos.
With the Left close to terminal decline, its erstwhile domination of the trade union movement too is ebbing. At last count, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh is India's largest central TU organisation, followed by the Congress-backed INTUC. From the cultural, intellectual spheres down to working class arenas, the Left faces rejection all across. Hopefully, India will now be freed of the arrogance, self-righteousness and condescension of 'Marx-putras' who could never fully integrate with the Indian consciousness. All at sea dealing with social realities such as caste and religion, the Left was always a foreign organism in India's body politic. The bhoomiputras have shown them their place. Leftism is being fast replaced by welfarism/egalitarianism as our dominant ideology. The Left lost the race because it always lacked a humanitarian appeal. India will be a better place without the organised Left calling the shots, despite its limited influence on the ground.
| ALSO IN THIS STORY |
THE LEFT A few things. For a balance in polity, a source of necessary dissent, they matter. |
THE LEFT Done in by their own hubris, Left intellectuals never learned to accept criticism |
LEFT & REFORMS Will the Left's losses lead to a surge in the economic reforms agenda? Not so fast. |
FOREIGN POLICY How actionable is the Left's instinctive anti-Americanism now? |
THE LEFT It would be best for CPI and CPI(M) to unite. Just a thought. |
AUTHORS: CHANDAN MITRA
TAGS: LEFT | LEFT FRONT | CPI | CPI-M
SECTION: NATIONAL
SUBSECTION: COVER STORIES | OPINION
PLACES: WEST BENGAL
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