Left Behind
In terms of social transformation also, the CPM-led coalition has turned in quite an impressive performance, signified best by the success of land reforms via Operation Barga (land to the tiller). Rural Bengals political and social awareness is now at an unprecedented level and in a democracy this must count for a lot. But this one tangible and two intangibles have to be viewed against the Left Fronts performance on other counts. And there the picture is much bleaker. Investment which dried up during the militant 60s and 70s is yet to pick up in a meaningful way. Bengals social indicators such as the number of schools, hospitals etc. remain pitiful. And, in what must surely symbolise this decline, the once-glorious Calcutta has become a place for the business traveller to avoid, recent attempts to clean it up notwithstanding. In short, then, a mixed record which can be used for proving either point of view.
Important though this is, there is an even more critical issue, at least from the Lefts point of view: as India enters the 21st century, what does the Left see itself doing? Its democratisation and marketisation, not to mention its experience with the hard realities of governance, have now reached a point where it has been, as it were, bourgeoised. Indeed, this has reached a point where only its often irritating pedantry distinguishes it from the Centre-Left parties like the Congress. One has only to read their respective manifestos to see this. Yet, in spite of this, there remains in the Left an overall appeal, not just to the intellect but to the heart as well. There are several ways of interpreting and explaining this appeal but in the end the fact remains that, by taking up cudgels explicitly and without hypocrisy hallmark of the Congress on behalf of the poor, the deprived and the weak, the Left stands vigil over the human conscience. It remains, in spite of its leaders and its aberrations, the
only humane alternative to religion.
It would be comforting to believe that Indias communists and other assorted Leftists will be able to reshape this ideology which so comprehensively dominated the 20th century. But the reality is otherwise. Having failed to attract the best and the brightest in adequate numbers during the 1970s, the Indian Left is, by and large, peopled by mostly old idealists and young opportunists. Like the rest of Indias political parties, the Left too needs a new leadership which stops thinking in categories which are mutually exclusive.This will not be easy; but as Europe has shown, it is not impossible either.