There is a stunning gloom all over. The electoral defeat is being seen as a counter-revolution and as if it is the end of the road. Everyone seems to have come out in the open with swords and pointing fingers at the faults. It is very easy to analyze in hindsight, and lecture on what went wrong, and say, 'I told you so!'
Projecting Third Front was a blunder:
It is being argued that the people in India did not like the idea of the non-Congress non-BJP government as they were afraid about its stability, and were not sure about the so called third front allies and their intentions. If it is so, the reversal in the polls in West Bengal should not happen in the coming 2011 assembly elections. We shall wait and see the outcome of it and also the imminent civic polls in West Bengal in a few days from now. Let us see if history absolves this theory.
Pro-Congress wave:
If it is argued that there was indeed a pro-Congress wave, it should have blown over Orissa and Tripura too. If it has missed those two states, there are questions against this theory too. But, even if it is a pro-Congress wave, it is us, the Left who were with the UPA for the greater part of the five years it ruled, and it is through the intervention by the Left that the common minimum programme was created, the NREGA was implemented, and the Disinvestment ministry was dissolved. Media was abuzz that it is because of the Left that the country was saved from the meltdown world over. So it is possible the Congress has reaped benefits which were originally due to us. That proves the politics of the Left is more relevant today. I think that itself is a news to cheer about, but I see a stunned gloom all over.
Local Issues:
The last couple of years were quite stormy for the Left. Kerala saw a bitter war of the two highest leaders in the open. People are not used to seeing communists arguing among each other outside the party and that might have created a dent in the credibility of the Left. But anyways, Kerala has seen anti-incumbency regularly. Ascribing the current rout to just this one factor can be completely erroneous given the history.
The Left Front government in West Bengal has since resisted the anti-incumbency for a very long 32 years. It is now showing chinks in this once invincible left fortress where anti-incumbency never has been a factor. It seemed that over the issue of industrialization process, land acquisition, and the ensuing errors our government did during the last couple of years has created a very strong anti-incumbency wave against the ruling Lefts. It is not very unnatural for this kind of wave to happen under the given circumstances. The Lefts are quite aware about the resistance that was created during the operation Barga by a handful, while the land was distributed from a handful to many. This time the land was being taken from many and was being given to a few. The resistance naturally is much higher, but we couldn't anticipate these sentiments, neither we could appreciate them after the resistance started until much later.
But the whole point in case here is how come we were not aware about this very strong anti-incumbency wave blowing all over the place in the state. That leaves the whole organization high and dry, and clearly shows either our comrades have lost touch with the grass root, or people have deserted the party cadres in such a way that they even didn't open up in front of our cadres about their anguish and anger. They preferred to show their wrath against the party through ballot, and this phenomenon, if true, is quite chilly. Probably if our party would have anticipated a rout in the elections, we would have been much happier today, at least it would have showed we haven't lost touch with the reality.
Campaign and Positioning was wrong:
India shining campaign failed only five years back. BJP was a confused lot this time. Congress campaign was clearly drawing from the Nehru-Gandhi era. Aam admi ke sath, Congress ke haath (Congress is with the common man). Congress campaigned about their policy about farm loan waiver. Its another matter that Indira Gandhi once campaigned and won on the election campaign plank of "Garibi Hatao" and forgot about it altogether when back in power. The Trinamool campaign was brilliant. The new strategy can be best symbolized by their new found catch phrase, ma-mati-manush (mother-earth-human), vowing to protect the lives and livelihoods of the rural peasants, which instantly caught the imagination of many. The symbolisms they have started using of late are reminiscent of the erstwhile communist movements in Bengal, which people can easily relate to even now. Starting with Tebhaga to Operation Barga the right to land to the tillers had been the crux, which was immaculately re-invented by the Trinamool by organizing peasants unwilling to part with their land for industrialization. The campaign strategists have been using left slogans, revolutionary poems of Sukanta Bhattacharya, revolutionary songs of Salil Chowdhury used during the Tebhaga movement, which the people can easily identify as the symbol of protest. The whole campaign was aimed at putting across the point that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has changed after 'enjoying power' for three decades, has become anti-peasant, and the leaders of the party now symbolize state authority whereas it is Mamata Banerjee who is the real messiah of the rural poor and middle class Bengal.
The CPI(M) campaigned about the Tata Nano! The walls in Bengal were full with flexes and graffiti of the Tata Nano, trying to make it a poll plank. Nano lost. Naturally. The silver lining again is the loss of Nano as a poll plank signifies the win of left politics. Something to cheer about, but of course we were at the wrong side of the fence this time.
The defeat and the violence:
The worst part of this whole episode that unfolded since the May 16th is the attitude that we are defeated. No doubt it has been an unprecedented slap on our face, which we are not used to. But the Lefts got 43% vote share in West Bengal even this time even in the face of joint attack from the rights, the extreme reactionaries, the ultra lefts, the bourgeois media, the so called civil society.
What happened just after the election results were declared was the most dreadful. Violence was unleashed by the Trinamool-Congress goons on the supporters of the Left Front. The poorest of the poor are being attacked. The Trinamool activists are continuing attacks in Tamluk, Mahisadal of East Midnapore district. In Khejuri Trinamool has started its attack by digging roads, setting fire to police vehicles and forcing poor people to flee from their homes. Party workers and party offices have been attacked in Kulpi, Canning and Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district and Rajarhat and Duttaspukur in North 24 Parganas district. Reports of Trinamool attack on CPI(M) are coming from various areas of West Bengal like Sitalkuchi of Coochbehar, Sabang in West Midnapore, Bhangar in South 24 Parganas, Cooper's Camp area of Nadia etc. There are reports of whole villages which were burned down in Howrah and Birbhum. In Coochbehar a 5-year-old child was tied with a bomb just for fun, while the Trinamool's victory march was on, the reason the child's father is a Left supporter. There are villages in Hoogly, Nadia, Coochbehar, South 24 Paragana districts where the Trinamool goons have laid siege, as these villages voted for the Left in the last panchayat polls.
We are yet to see our national level leaders to come to the rescue of these poor peasants and workers. It is time our party throws all its weight in solidarity with the poor, homeless, left supporters. Will it be too much to ask for the national leaders to camp with these supporters of our party, in this time of their deep crisis? Is it too much to ask for the leftists worldwide to start campaigning against these atrocities, if possible start a relief campaign too?
Pigsty and the N-deal:
Instead there is still debates going on everywhere, there is gloom, there is rage, there is baying for the blood of the leaders, there is dejection, there is playing in the hands of the bourgeois media in the drama of resignations. There are arguments in the air that the Lefts would have gained and come out stronger if we had continued to support the UPA government even after the Nuclear Deal was signed ignoring the CMP, hoodwinking the parliament. It is probably true, the Mamata-Congress alliance wouldn't have happened. We would have been known as the party to a deal which made our county a subordinate ally of the Imperialism. We could have done better if we had merged with the Congress, as there was a Congress wave too.
The election verdict is quite clear that the people have questioned our left credentials. People have doubted our policies in the states we are in government. Was it important to compromise our stated politics just for a few more seats in the pigsty?
The defeat in the pigsty has relieved these communist leaders from the pigsty itself so that they can concentrate on organizing mass movements. The corporate world is already delighted with the election results, there will be unbridled implementation of the neo-liberal policies and a more rightward turn by this government is just imminent, just because of their class character. There should be no dearth of issues in front of the Left to organize mass movements.
This defeat of the Left in the pigsty can be a boon in disguise for the Left in India, the only hope for the 79% working class population of our country who can't spend more than Rs. 20 a day. We have a Peoples Democratic Revolution to work for.