The Left Front in West Bengal

This is a response to Prabhat Patnaik’s “Reflections on the Left” (EPW, 11 July 2009). I have a different opinion as far as the Left’s debacle in West Bengal is concerned. The loss of votes of the Left has much more to do with local issues than with matters affecting the country and the world as a whole. The key concern was not the ideology that the Left Front has pursued but the fact the oppositional movements of various kinds coalesced primarily around the inefficiency, arrogance and high-handedness of the regime. The issues were widely different – Singur and Nandigram were related to the imperious behaviour of the government on land rights of the peasantry; the Rizwanur episode showed how the police could be hand-in-glove with the rich; the case of Taslima Nasreen showed how the regime was desperately trying to please the Muslim fundamentalists; and, the Public Distribution System episode revealed how the government was unable to manage a vital element of the social security network.

Nandigram was probably the flashpoint which brought out in the open the disappointment and the anger against the regime that has been building up over the years but was not able to take any definite shape because of the weakness of the opposition. The fact that Mamata Banerjee and her team managed to play their cards well and also arrive at a historic understanding with the Congress helped to swing the voters away from Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and its allies. Exactly how important has been the role of certain intellectuals is difficult to say but they have certainly played their part. There is no hard data available, yet it can be said with confidence that the electoral swing was more about teaching the party “dadas” a lesson than anything related to ideology or policy. There is a strong chance (which again cannot be proved without systematic research) that a large section of erstwhile CPI(M) followers, who for various reasons have over the years become alienated from the party, has waited for the opportunity to strike back, even going to the extent of favouring Mamata Banerjee, post-Nandigram, in order to create an opposition to the CPI(M). Many of the stalwarts of the CPI(M) who have lost had, over the years, become feudal bosses in their own pockets, more powerful than the party leaders in Alimuddin, and there has been a revolt against them.