The left front

The Congress debacle is a subject of shrill discussions of Indian electronic media, which by the way can make shrill discussions on any subject. Some of the channels are even finding time to discuss the fate of AAP. Mostly they invite Yogendra Yadav, who now-a-days can always double as expert analyst as well as political activist. The Indian social media is overflowing with comments about either Modi or Rahul Gandhi. International media has taken a strong note of the rise of Modi.

The remarkable absence in these abundant discussions is the status of the Indian left parties. One can understand its non existence on the social media because for the new generation on the social media, it is almost an era long gone. The figure of Face book likes of the official page of CPM is a pathetic 36293 as against the 4,960,130 FB likes of BJP. The twitter handle of CPIM has 3844 followers as compared to 703773 followers of Aam Adami Party. But it is surprising it has vanished in the electronic media, once dominated by left leaning journalists. Perhaps now the irrelevance of the movement on the national scenario is a mutely accepted fact.

Although effectively reduced to regional party with footholds in West Bengal, Kerala, and small state of Triupra for the last 30 years, the CPM used to be counted in the ultimate equations at the center, and the people handling Delhi affairs of CPM were invariably from Bengal. Former CBI director and Bengal DGP Arun Prosad Mukherjee has revealed in his autobiography thatRajiv Gandhi had wanted Jyoti Basu to become the Prime Minister and had pleaded with him twice during the politically tumultuous times of 1990 and 1991. Even in 1997, Jyoti Basu was openly offered the post of prime minister by the third front. The decline of the offer by the party was later termed by him as historic blunder.

 History has proved him to be correct. Since 1997 it has been a continuous decline and fall of the Left, a process disguised by accidents of electoral mathematics until the slide became an avalanche three years ago. Decimated by Mamata Banarjee in Bengal in 2011, the left seems to be on irreversible decline after that. In election 2014, the entire left front of forward block, revolutionary socialist party and CPM was reduced to win on just two seats, Raiganj and Murshidabad. More colossal is the decline in actual votes in all constituencies.

The left front lost almost 32 lakh votes as compared to its votes in 2009. Considering it with the fact that the total number of voters increased in Bengal by almost 74 lakh as compared to 2009, the loss seems to be almost about 1 lakh votes per constituency, sometimes more. For example, in Arambagh they lost 2 lakh 28 thousand votes as compared to 2009 and of course lost the seat also. In the three constituencies of Kolkata and Howrah, their votes were reduced by 3 lakh 81 thousand.

The anticlimax was perhaps the simultaneous rise of BJP in Bengal. In the last two decades of 20^th century, when BJP and Hindutva movement was on rise everywhere, the left intellectuals opposed them tooth and nail, even more than Congress. The left front even supported Congress in UPA 1 era, just to keep BJP out of power. It is ironical that in their very bastion, the rise of BJP should coincide with decimation of left. Riding the Modi wave - Modi did not mince words when categorically mentioning the problems created by Bangala deshi infiltrators - the BJP registered an impressive tally of 87 lakh votes, an increase of 60 lakhs over its 2009 figures. Considering that total voters in Bengal are about 6 Crores in 2014, it can be said that BJP has really arrived in the state.

No wonder that an editorial piece that appeared in the CPI's mouthpiece Janayugam has said

‘The communist parties must unite together. With the present political scene in India, it is imperative that all communist parties in India must stand united.’
The article further goes on to say that ‘it was 50 years back that the Indian Communist Party was vertically split. The fissures seen in the Communist platforms in the world and difference of opinions in the approach towards the Indian bourgeois triggered this split. Those rifts are irrelevant in today's context.
The present atmosphere in India does not want the Communist parties to stand separated by legalising the rifts that happened centuries back.’

With many inherent contradictions, like the split being 50 years old, the CPM bastion in Kerala and Tripura remaining intact, but Bengal in decline and all central leadership dominated by Bengali leaders, the solution for resurgence is nowhere in near site. That is why the NY Times described the left movement as endangered species. While describing Tripura and its CM Manik Sarkar in one of the few articles written on the left movement in 2014 elections, the article says

‘This finger of land wrapped around Bangladesh is the last refuge for many of India’s most endangered species, including the pygmy hog, the white-bellied heron and, perhaps most critically, the dyed-in-the-wool Communist.’