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The Right End to Bengal’s Left



I was recently told that even Alimuddin Street is a field of green flags. The record voting turnout, the philosophical attitude of my leftwing friends and relatives, and the confidence of Mamata Banerjee who is allowing herself to sound almost ministerial – it all points to not merely the end of communist rule in West Bengal but its imminent rout.

“The left is ready to sit in opposition,” is what I’ve been repeatedly told. The expectation of both the Congress and the communists is that Mamata will discredit herself in the next two to three years. And then it will their chance again.

The Trinamool chief knows this. So she’s kept the lion’s share of tickets in North Bengal, the last remaining Congress party stronghold. The Congress has run a bunch of independents there to recoup some of their losses. But it’s hard to see them going beyond 35 seats in a 187 seat state assembly.

The left parties don’t really know what’s going to hit them or what will follow. How can they? They’ve been in power for over three decades and don’t really quite know what is going in West Bengal. My analysis is simple: the original Communist Party of India Marxist leadership consisted of land-owning feudals from East Bengal – now Bangladesh – turned into refugees by the Partition. They hated the Congress for the Partition, but declined to hear the siren call of Hindu nationalism.So they turned left. The unusual discipline that imbued its members was forged from the Partition. They combined this with aggressive and voter-friendly land reforms (they didn’t have land any more, what did they care?) to create the forever rule of the Left Front governments.

But the memory of Partition is now nearly three generations past. The new party members of the party are simply opportunistic politicos. Land reforms is a has-been accomplishment and the beneficiaries are wondering what to do with what has become handkerchief-size plots of land.

Mamata will have an even tougher time as chief minister. She will inherit a state with a huge debt. Fiscal consolidation, or draining the red ink from the government’s books, is an election loser for ruling parties. The best of the best have survived one and even two elections while belt-tightening is going on. But never more than that and rarely two.

The political skill that is required to cut the debt, keep voters happy and win elections is considerable. Which is why everyone looks at Mamata and wonders.

She couldn’t have done worse by choosing Amit Mitra, former head of FICCI, as a candidates and possibly future finance minister. Her aides have dabbled with free market types like Bibek Debroy. And she talks of inviting investment, American and otherwise, to state as a necessity. So who knows?

Question: whither the “left space” in Indian politics with the demise of the communists for this election cycle (they are likely to lose in Kerala as well)? The Congress will be tempted to take over that discourse under the impression all that politically correct mumbojumbo gets votes. The truth is the communists were barely communist after so many years in politics. My guess the NGOs and their ilk will be the ones who take on that mantle.

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Posted by Pramit Pal Chaudhuri on Friday, April 29, 2011 at 12:14 am 
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  • Ashish

    Of all the politically correct/ incorrect mumbo-jumbo that passes for political analysis, this one takes the cake.
    Would the author care to explain, for instance, what he meant when he wrote- “She couldn’t have done worse by choosing Amit Mitra, former head of FICCI, as a candidates and possibly future finance minister.”
    Does HT employ decent sub-editors any more? Or is it that Foreign Editors, pontificating on the national scene and making grand predictions of NGOs taking up the left of centre space in Indian politics are exempt from their tender loving care?

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  • Jayant

    Its a well written article.. two things were spot on. the Left simply stopped being communists after so many years in power…and with it they stopped the progress of Bengal on the economic front…Secondly Mamata is basically a rabble rouser with no ideology save ouster of the Left, as if that alone will magically solve the ills of the State..she will find the going tough precisely because there is a poverty of ideology where the TMC is concerned as opposed to the Left’s ideology of poverty. the public honeymoon with mamata will last approx two to three years( thats stretching it !!!) as is normal with new governments..in a way the congress and Lefts reading of the days ahead in the political map of Bengal is not so far off the mark…

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  • Pramit

    Just noticed I blundered, West Bengal is 295 seats in the assembly.

    And, yes, it should have been “she couldn’t have done better by choosing Amit Mitra..”

    Happens when you write from your Blackberry keyboard, late at night.

    Pramit

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  • http://yahoo Mandal S K

    Mamata Banerjee has done which nobody opposing the Left Front could do in last 34 years.
    The ruling class of WB are in power for 34 years not because they have done or created anything good for the state. Most of their leaders who had lost their zamindary in Bangladesh wanted to see the land owning, mostly of middle class background population of West Bengal,become landless like themselves, with no good for the so called poor. (The reason being no one can cultivate half or ome acre land and sustain a living, which were given to landless by Left Front. The 25-30 acre land owned by the original owner is either snatched away or marked in favour of the share cropper through ‘barga’). These new land owners,the so called beneficiaries, along with the militant cadres of CPM ‘managed’ 6 successive state assembly elections. This time Mamata has raised a cadre, if not same sized, who are sble to stand up to the bullying of their opponents. This coupled with the souring of the ’sweet’ relation of CPM and Congress at Delhi has forced the union govt. to oppose the CPM ‘election management’ and Election Commision also acting in a manner they are supposed to act to uphold democracy, may bring about any change in Bengal politics. Mamata is not a crook unlike the present rulers and therefore she may not be able to manipulate. It is for the ‘majority’ people of the state to decide whether they want to rot for ever or take the risk. Mamata, inspite of her emotional outbursts can not take the state further down even in another 34 years. After all she is not both hishonest and corrupt, unlike many of her rivals.

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  • shan

    @Pramit, dont think Economics is your srtong subject . West Bengal has the dubious reputation of being THE MOST DENSELY POPULATED PLACE ON PLANET EARTH, surpassing Kerala.
    The single most important benefit to follow from Mamata’s win is the CHANGE IN BRAND IN BRAND IDENTITY. Just like Union Carbide dissolved itself and metamorphoseD into a different company after BHOPAL DISASTER, else it would have been impossible to operate with name bhopal chasing it.
    Similarly LEFT FRONT stood for ANARCHY , STRIKES , BLATANT NEPOTISM OR PARTYISM
    AND SLOGANS “ONE DAY A POOR MAN ‘S SHOE WILL BE MADE FROM THE HIDE OF THE RICH”
    hardly a conducive atmosphere for INVESTMENTS.

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  • Soham G

    The Indian media (owned by Left hating corporates) and their salaried journalists have made a career of criticizing the Left for all the problems of West Bengal. Mythical data and statistics are bandied around daily. Some hotshot from Delhi comes in to Kolkata and weeps about the lack of infra in Khardah (gosh did he never visit some of the horrible suburbs of Delhi?). Another comes in from Mumbai and talks of poverty in Purulia ( Pray why doesn’t he see any poverty in Slumbai?). Another sits in an airconditoned studio and twitters away incorrect facts. Then there are the Bibek Debroys churning out white lies as white papers. As lies are repeated daily, readers start believing the lies and start getting convinced that the Left did no good for Bengal in the last 34 years. That I think has been the Left’s biggest challenge in India – a media pack full of lies, garbage and nonsense with smart packaging. Mamata is only a temporary challenge for the Left. She will fade away in a year or two as she has overpromised beyond the plausible.

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