West Bengal Election and the left
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Bengal Election and the left
Arup
Baisya
Both the resounding
victory of TMC and the electoral drubbing of the left in West Bengal have
baffled many left leaning pollsters. The much talked about popular discontent
against TMC due to the syndicate raj and the terror tactics of the TMC goons
have not favoured the left combine (left plus congress). But the left has a
copybook answer which is in consonance with the allegation they have been
propagating since long. Immediately after the announcement of the result, the
CPIM general secretary wasted no time to blow the bugle of TMC-BJP clandestine
alliance behind TMC’s success. The rest of the Bengal leaders of CPM party beat
the musical chord in unison to synthesise the same tune. The level of arrogance
has reached to such a high that the necessity of introspection to analyse
social dynamics is killed at the altar of rhetorical politics, the avatar of
which rules the roost at national level now-a-days.
The only agenda the
left combine has placed before the Bengal electorate was ‘to dislodge TMC to
save democracy’. The Bengal voters saw no reason to prefer institutionalised
terror of Left rule to unruly violence of lumpen precariat elements backed by
TMC. In the entire campaign of the left
combine, the main constituent, the CPIM, has neither apologised to the masses
for the terror they have institutionalised during their rule, nor divulged the
form of democracy they intend to offer to the Bengal people. People felt no
urgency to make any comparison between the present TMC rule and the left rule in
recent past on the basis of their role to patronise the political culture of
attack on dissenters or merciless annihilation of political opponents. Rather, how
the people were terrorised to be docile and servile to the party apparatchiks
who were at the helm of affairs of all the institutions especially in rural
life are still vivid in the people’s mind. The concept of people’s direct
participation in Panchayat system through Gram-Sansad for promoting grass root
democracy was introduced by the left who, in turn, destroyed this democratic
essence by forcible subsumption of social opinion to the party opinion of
select few through institutionalisation of terror. How People’s work space, social space and even
family space were put under scanner and control of CPM party committees are not
yet the bygone and forgotten days for Bengal electorates. Left could have made
a humble start of the poll campaign by seeking apology to the people for their
wanton mistake. But they did not do so. In such a scenario, so long as TMC does
not develop a party structure and emulate the later part of the left rule of
institutionalised terror, people will not consider the left as an alternative
option. If such thing happens, during this transitional time period, CPM may
get itself withered away in Bengal, because the large Shark like BJP has opened
its mouth wide open to gobble up all the swirling small fishes. Though BJP’s
vote share compared to 2014 election has come down from 17% to 10.2%, around
4.5% has depleted in Darjeeling Hill district, and it implies that there is no
significant decline in Bengal proper, though Modi wave has subsided
significantly. The Left-congress combine instead of increasing their vote share
shed 1% of their votes compared to 2014. On the other hand, TMC has increased
their margin by hefty 5%. This indicates that there was an overall trend of the
common voters to swing towards TMC, and that was arrested to a little extent through
media blitzkrieg against TMC. The left is pretending to pay deaf ear to the
trend of decline that may lead to their decimation, because they have no clue
for the trend-reversal beyond dwelling on the premise whether electoral
relation with congress was right or not. Why?
The welfarism and deficit
budget is anathema to the neo-liberal policy of which BJP is now the champion.
It was very much amusing to note that the lefts have been criticising the TMC
for their populist welfarist measures as doles distribution and syndicate
corruption. The implementation of welfare schemes cannot be absolutely
corruption free so long as the vibrant people’s movement does not build a
mechanism of check and balance. Left could have played a role in building such
movement to instil the sense that the welfare measures are the rights of the
people, but instead they preferred to criticise the concept of welfarism
itself. It is now amply clear that the TMC government could implement the
various welfare schemes successfully at least in the eyes of the beneficiaries
who voted for TMC which is now obliged to continue such measures. The part of
the left agenda has been snatched away by TMC, and left has been found to be
crying foul in vain going against this basic policy frame.
How TMC will sustain
this welfarism with mounting deficit budget, TMC itself does not know, because
TMC does not have any alternative policy of industrialisation that can
challenge neo-liberalism. But on this count also, TMC has positioned itself in
the left-of-centre by citing the opposition to land acquisition for Singur
consistently as its principled stand. On the contrary, left instead of being
repentant for what they did in Singur and Nandigram to follow industrialisation
neo-liberal model, they arrogantly expressed vainglory for the industrial
policy they followed and attacked TMC for Singur mess. This is a ridiculous
stand of a party that waves red flag. The cadres who carry this red flag will
not hesitate to change the hand to raise the saffron flag aloft, seeking refuse
to a secured place from TMC attack will be their best excuse.
One of the best indicators
to judge the secular democratic credential of ruling dispensation is to see how
they treat the minorities in their state. Sachar Committee revealed volumes
about the left negligence towards the Muslim Minority of Bengal. How Mamata has
not only retained but also extended her base within minority is yet to be
explored. But those who opine that the only through pecuniary support to
Mullah/Moulavis Mamata could play this magic are missing the whole canvass of
minority social milieu.
Finally, the main
apprehension of TMC’s switch over to BJP’s camp that was aired by a section of
left in the pre-election political discourse can be shelved at least for the
time being for two important structural obligations of TMC. To establish the
political clout at national level, Mamata has to retain her huge minority base
by projecting her secular image, and she has to continue her welfare measures
to retain her base in rural and semi-urban Bengal despite neo-liberal pressure.
The alternative left politics may re-emerge in future through the framing of a
people-oriented development model, extension of democracy and sustained mass
struggle provided strong political opposition is built to combat fascism which
is looming large.
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