The Left: Adept at painting slogans but failed to read writing on the wall

For a party so adept at painting slogans, its failure to read the writing on the wall has cost it dearly

It’s not that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is suddenly facing  an existential crisis. The writing on the wall has been clear for some time. The CPI(M)’s defeat in Tripura after helming the state for more than two decades comes seven years after it lost West Bengal to the Trinamool Congress in 2011. The humiliating defeat the Left suffered in a state it had uninterruptedly ruled for 34 years – and which was the primary state providing the Left its clout in national politics – should have driven the party to look inwards; to dissect its policies, refurbish its