The retreat of the Indian Left Praful Bidwai The West Bengal electorate has handed a third consecutive defeat to the Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM). In the latest rural-council (panchayat) elections, the Front only won one of 17 zilla parishads (ZPs), the same as the much smaller Congress. The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) triumphed in 13 ZPs – as the Left did five years ago. Although party-wise voting percentages aren’t yet available, the three-cornered contest has overwhelmingly benefited the TMC. The Left Front’s percentage-share of zilla parishad seats has shrunk from 68.7 in 2008 to a poor 24.8, while the TMC’s has improved from 16 to 61.6. True, the Left won 31.1 percent of seats in village-based gram panchayats, the lowest level – down from 52.5 percent in 2008. It also retained some of its support in North Bengal. But the Left failed to recoup most of the losses it suffered in southern Bengal in the 2011 assembly elections, except marginally in areas near Kolkata – probably a fallout of Trinamool’s growing unpopularity in urban centres. More crucially, the Left Front suffered major setbacks in its former citadels in Central Bengal: Bardhaman, Birbhum, West and East Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia. These were its strongest and longest-standing bases. For instance, Bardhaman saw some of the greatest Communist-led land struggles. Legendary peasant leaders like Harekrishna Konar and Benoy Choudhury came from Bardhaman. The losses are serious and suggest that the Left, especially the CPM, hasn’t been able to arrest its slide since the Singur (2006) and Nandigram (2007-08) crises, which pitted it against its core support-base: small and middle peasants, workers and artisans. The defeats of 2009 (Lok Sabha) and 2011 (assembly elections) followed. The Left’s latest debacle reflects its glaring failure to capitalise on Banerjee’s appalling governance: a sharp rise in crime, growing corruption and cronyism, repression of legitimate protest, and not least, the Saradha scam, which financed the TMC. This wiped out three million people’s savings. Crime against women has risen monstrously in West Bengal. The state accounts for 12.7 percent of such crimes in India, well above its population share. But Banerjee dismissed terrible incidents such as a rape in Park Street in the heart of Kolkata, and the rape and murder of a student in Kamduni, 20 km away, as “concocted” stories or “small incidents”. She transferred the woman police officer who investigated the Park Street case. This has greatly demoralised the police, as has a thug’s shooting of a police sub-inspector in broad daylight in Kolkata. Banerjee responded by sacking the police commissioner who ordered investigation against the suspect. Her ‘off-with-his-head’ ways – eg arrest of a teacher who posted a cartoon about her on the internet – have earned her ill-will particularly in the cities. Banerjee’s uncouth manner has lost her whatever sympathy the upper-caste bhadralok had for her. Her industrial policy and opposition to land acquisition by the state for private industry have perpetuated West Bengal’s investment and employment famine amidst disastrous public finances. The Left attributes its poor showing to violence by the TMC, undoubtedly a party of goons. There is some truth in this. Some 6,000 Left candidates weren’t allowed to file their nominations. And about 12,000 were coercively prevented from campaigning and mobilising their supporters to cast ballots. More than 40,000 Left cadres fled their homes. Over 500 Left party offices were set on fire or vandalised. More than 20 people were killed. The Left was prevented from sending agents to many polling booths. Yet, violence cannot explain the Left’s rout. A lot of CPM cadres, especially lumpens, had defected to the TMC. That party got divided between a ‘Green TMC’ (the original) and a ‘Red Trinamool’ (composed of defectors). The CPM was demoralised and couldn’t mobilise its famous ‘party machine’. The TMC won some 15 percent of the 85,000 panchayat seats without contest. But to be brutally frank, the CPM also practised such coercive tactics in the past. It too won some 10 percent of the seats uncontested in 2003 and 2008. In those elections, handsomely won by the Left, more than 20 or 30 people were killed. The Left’s poor performance is primarily attributable to continuing popular discontent against the CPM’s long history of subordinating the state to the party, building a patronage system abused by party cadres, and recent pursuit of anti-people neoliberal industrial and land policies. The panchayat debacle comes on top of a fall in the Left’s vote-percentage from 51 in 2004 to 43 in 2009, and further to under 40 percent in 2011 (Assembly elections). The Front’s seat-tally plummeted from 235 to 62 (of a total of 294 assembly seats), marking its exit from power after a record 34 years – the longest such tenure in any democracy. Yet, the Left has not admitted to having committed grave policy errors. Its state- and district-level leadership has continued unchanged, barring a few expulsions following cosmetic ‘rectification’. A recent opinion poll forecasts an even steeper 15 percentage-point fall in the Front’s vote – enormous by India’s standard even for ‘wave’ elections – to 28 percent in 2014, with a likely loss of Lok Sabha seats. Another poll forecasts only two additional seats for the Left, but three more for the TMC. At any rate, the Left doesn’t seem set to recover from its setbacks anytime soon although it might make small gains in 2014 if there’s no alliance between the TMC and the Congress, as seems likely. The ‘blame game’ has already started in the West Bengal CPM over responsibility for the panchayat debacle. Unable to resolve it, the party has indefinitely postponed its state committee meeting scheduled for August 22-23. The Left’s decline is now manifested both nationally and in West Bengal. Behind it lie deeper, structural causes: ideological rigidity and confusion, outdated programmes, over-emphasis on parliamentarism to the exclusion of mass work and grassroots-based popular struggles, and a socially non-radical upper-caste leadership. Instead of imaginatively looking for alternatives to neoliberalism, the Left’s leadership often opted for expedient ‘pragmatism’ which encourages a drift into these very policies. It showed an unhealthy obsession with industrialisation at any cost, and neglected social sector agendas, especially in West Bengal. The result is that West Bengal has some of India’s lowest indices in health and education. Its school dropout rates are higher than Bihar’s. Its performance in the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act programme is the worst among 20 major Indian states. Its food Public Distribution System is among India’s most run-down. The Left has failed to integrate issues such as caste, patriarchy and ecology into its theoretical understanding. It must reflect self-critically on these if it wants to modernise and update its programmes and policies. It will also have to radically transform its present organisational culture which outlaws dissent and prevents free debate – and hence honest introspection. Above all, the Left must rebuild its links with grassroots movements by taking up people’s livelihood issues. Yet, one must hope that the Left regains its relevance. It’s one of the few currents in Indian politics – and perhaps the most important one – which is committed to the empowerment and emancipation of the marginalised, and is relatively untainted by corruption. That’s saying a lot – at least in South Asia. The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and rights activist based in Delhi. Email: [email protected]
Posted on: Sun, 18 Aug 2013 17:40:44 +0000
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