Saffron
symbolism in red bastion
The
episodic event of demolition of Lenin’s statue has been reenacted from
erstwhile USSR, the holy land of leftism to the state of Tripura, a small
hinterland of Indian nation. People of the state consciously or unconsciously
acquiesced with this onslaught on the symbol of left politics. Symbol always
represents content. When the content of working class politics is nullified,
the people cannot bear its imagery in their hearts and minds. This is what has
happened in Tripura. The rejuvenated fascist forces with diabolically opposite
content have replaced the decadent left in power. This was not the case in West
Bengal where TMC snatched power from Left Front through an arduous struggle for
the rights of the people. TMC grasped some of the content of the left without
internalizing these ideologically. The content and ideology in two different continuums
are creating inner conflict within the TMC formations. In Tripura, the victor
is waving aloft the symbol of fascist ideology for the entire nation to see. Almost
fifty years ago, Indian nation saw the flag of the revolutionary toiling masses
from Naxalbari, a small village of North Bengal and this time the flag of the
counter-revolution completing its full circle is visible from Belonia, a small
town of Tripura. This is a shift from village to town. This also marks the
beginning of the end of second round. The fascists know this and this explains
their aggressive posturing on left’s dethronement. The hinterland may raise
another red flag with symbol of Lenin’s image at the core when the fascists are
losing ground in mainland. But to surmise this to happen, the deviations in
left’s journey need to be identified and make the people aware of these
deviations for rectifications. The left practitioners should not pretend that
they are the repository of all knowledge and should follow the Marxist tenet of
learning from the masses. This is one of the major follies of the Indian left
practitioners that they never articulate their mistakes in public domain. The
conspiratorial secrecy eats up the vital of the functioning of the party. How
one can expect communist overture from the present CPIM ‘Bengali Bhadralok’
leaderships who criticizes Mamata Govt for promoting Kamtapuri language and
alleged minority fundamentalism, even after the sudden fall from their
cherished citadel of power in Tripura.
The
communist party came to power depending on the bright legacy of democratic
struggle of Tripura tribals. Jamatia revolt (1863) based on not-to-pay taxes
was one of the important democratic movement against the autocratic
administration of the feudal lord. The revolt shook the vary basis of the
unconditional support to the feudal lords. The reang revolt (1942-43) led by
Ratanmoni Roatia created a great shake in the history of the democratic
movement. The swadeshi movement in Bengal (1905) had influenced the people of
Tripura. The social reform movement (1946-49) of the Lushai’s had been started
against irrational power of the Lushai chiefs under the banner of “Tripura
Lushai Union’ and succeeded in abolishing it. The Janashiksha movement
(1945-1948) under the banner of “Tripura Janasishiksha Samity’ led by Biren
Dutta, Nilmani Debbarma, Dasarath Deb and Sudhanwa Debbarma was a milestone in
the history of Tripura. However Janasaksiksha ceased to exist in 1948 when
communist party was banned. This movement was spearheaded for mass education
and against the squeezing of the tribals by Mahajans. Partition brought with it
many complications due to loss of fertile land and refugee influx. Communist
party of India decided to launch armed resistance against the conspiracy of
merging Tripura with Pakistan and “Tripura Rajya Mukti Parishad” came into
existence in 1948 and Dasarath deb and Aghor Debbarma were elected as the
president and general secretary respectively. Parishad started agitation
against the Dewani rule and the military rule in entire Khowai Division. Its
movement was spearheaded to resist subjugation by violent means. The guerilla
unit known as santi Sena Bahini and tribal women’s force as an auxiliary force
of the guerilla unit was also formed. For long the royal army and officials
used the poor tribals in the rural areas especially in the hills as forced
labourers to transport the baggages of army and the officials from one hill to
another. Especially the tribal womenfolk were awfully victims of this practice
which is known as Titun in the local languages. Women revolted against this
practice and three tribal girls killed in police firing in the padmabil
incident which took place in the first part of 1949. Titun was thereafter
abolished.
The
Gana Mukti Parishad (GMP) and its leaders like Dasarath debbarma laid a strong
base for the formation of the CPI and later CPI(M). The GMP formed in May, 1948
and led the struggle on the political, economic and social issues of tribal
community. It led armed resistance against state repression from late 1948 to
1951. Post 1951, it adopted the path of mass movement and started participated
in electoral politics. In this phase, the state saw a huge influx of Bengali
Hindu refugee and this has its ramification in changing Tripura’s demographic
profile. The percentage of tribal population reduced from 50.1% in 1941 to
28.9% in 1971. The left in this period rightly fought for the rights of the
refugees as well as protection of land and identity of the tribals. Based on
this struggle, CPIM led left front came to power in 1978. In the initial phase
of left rule, few democratic measures were taken. Tribal area autonomous district
council was formed under seventh schedule and Kokborok was made official
language in 1979. The autonomous district council was finally brought under
sixth schedule in 1984. But the parliamentary cretinism and politics of class
compromise also started germinating with the ascendance to power. After
ascendance to power, the left eschewed the politics of class struggle. Instead
of decetralisation of power, full autonomy to the tribals, consolidation of
toiling masses cutting across community line, instilling communist ideology and
world view within tribal rank and files, they started imbibing the art of
managing various power groups in good humour. The vibrant people’s movement
which gave rise to the left support base was allowed to die down. The progressive
political debate within the masses came to a standstill. The party headquarters
and the party committees started filling the vacuum created from the withdrawal
of people’s active participation in political life. Through the two tired
Panchayati Raj initiated by the left front, the party hegemony started
extending to the grass-roots. This opened up the space for reactionary politics
in the masses. The ruling class tactics of playing the soft Bengali chauvinism
on the one end and tribal sectarianism on the other were played out to woo the
voters for electoral gains. It is important to note that only two years after
the left’s ascendance to power, in 1980, Tripura witnessed an ethnic riot
causing a divesting political dynamic in the state. A section of militant
tribal wing TUJS went to underground and in 1989 volunteers of TNV returned to
the mainstream of life. But the tribal rebellion did not end.
This
parliamentary cretinism and politics of class compromise have now developed to
its full form and this has been actually rejected by the people in competitive electoral
politics. From 1978 to 1988, left front ruled two terms under the chief
Ministership of Nripen Chakraborty. Left front again came back to power in 1993
with Dasarath Deb as CM, and Manik Sarkar became CM for the first time in 1998.
Tripura had a mixed experience in Manik Sarkar’s terms in office. Manik
Sarkar’s term in left rule started with paradigm shift in left approach in
consonance with policy framework of the centre. The Tripura Government adopted
the overall neo-liberal economic policy of the centre and implemented it with a
human face of welfarist planning. The space for welfare measures within the
garb of neoliberal policy drive was available for the left government because
of its peripheral geographical position, insignificant presence of big capital
and rudimentary phase of look east policy that demands adequate infrastructure
and skilled labour. Within this policy framework, the centre and the ruling
congress party allowed the left front Government to function on its own without
any disturbance and hindrance and in return, the left front did not raise the
slogan of ‘more power to the state’. This is the external dimension of the
class compromise and deviation from left politics. The internal dimension of
class compromise started much earlier when the left front came to power for the
first time and the continuation of this politics led to the abject surrender to
the forces of neo-liberalism. The transition of Tripura politics have occurred
from the struggling left to centrist over a period of time and now, it has
shifted to extreme right. The left’s huge support base is actually a docile
mass under the spell of a hegemonic control of the party which regulates the
selection process of beneficiaries of government schemes by the grass-root
government and Panchayatraj institutions. By negating the concept of people’s
rights and empowerment, the process of uplifting the people’s consciousness has
been negated. The much publicized improvement in human development index was
achieved by the Manik Sarkar Government through the implementation of
neo-liberal policy with human face. Manik Sarkar Government was appreciated
even by the present BJP Government at the centre for strictly adhering to Tripura
Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2005. The projects like
natural resource management, poverty alleviation programme were initiated with the
help of foreign fund from Japan and Germany. The increased debt burden, reduced
central Government financial support and neo-liberal policy of fiscal
responsibility handicapped the Government from participating in job creation.
Furthermore, Tripura Government pursued the PPP model in various projects at
the behest of the centre, and the ramification of this PPP model is the further
depletion of the public resources due to increasing public liability for
private profit. The economic model pursued by Manik sarkar Government was in
essence a model of jobless growth. Thus the un-employment situation in the
State has assumed alarming position. Total job seekers in the Employment
Exchanges of the State were 6,62,756 on March 2015, which further increased to
6,93,516 in March 2016. Increase in population and consequent addition to the
labour force, the supply side of labour force continues to outstrip the demand
resulting in rise of un-employment and under employment at an alarming rate in
the State. Due to improvement in human development index, the number skilled
labour also increased. Average land holding size of the state is 0.97 hectare.
90% of the cultivators are either small or marginal. In the industrially
backward state it has created heavy pressure on agricultural land, as only 27
per cent of the total area of the state is available for cultivation.
Whatever
political empowerment was achieved by the SC-ST-OBCs especially by the tribals
at the initial phase of the left rule was decimated by this economic model of
development and politics of class compromise.
The
saffron brigade with their power at the centre struck a decisive blow at this
Achilles’ heel of skewed left politics and will lead this same policy framework
adopted by the left front to its extreme logical end, and thus impoverishing
the entire oppressed masses as cheap labour for their policy persuasion of
neo-liberalism, act east and politics of exclusion. Only the left politics of
class struggle and people’s resistance along with the broadest unity of the
democratic forces can save the masses from all out reactionary economic-political
and ideological onslaught.
অরুণোদয় শিলচর শহরের প্রাচীনতম পত্রিকা। প্রতিষ্ঠাতা সম্পাদক ছিলেন প্রয়াত সুনীল দত্তরায়। গেল এক দশকের বেশি সময় জুড়ে এর সম্পাদনা করছেন চন্দন সেনগুপ্ত। এখানে আপনা পড়তে পাবেন এর জানুয়ারি-ফেব্রুয়ারি ২০১৮ সংখ্যা। 
