Indian Communism’s last shot!
“I am the first among them to take responsibility” — These were the words of the once Grand Communist Party — now reduced to a hollowed pocket in Kerala, India’s southernmost state.
The Year was 2004 and Results to the 14th Lok Sabha were out. The Congress Party led by Sonia Gandhi pulled off an emphatic turn around defying all exit polls to emerge as the single largest party with 145 Seats followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 138 seats. What was known was that the Indian National Congress would stake claim to form the government albeit how the UPA Alliance would find the numbers were yet to be seen. These Elections had sought to usher in a new political epoch — The Left Front led by Harkishan Singh Surjeet had won a whopping 59 seats, it was never seen before in Indian Political History that the Left would have so much discretion in government dictation.
The Left front enjoyed preliminary publicity for a large part of UPA-I. This stratospherically ameliorated after the contentious US-India Nuclear Deal in 2008, a year preceding the General Elections to the 15th Lok Sabha. The country erupted in rapid protests and the Congress was put on the defensive after stringent opposition by the Left Front (LF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). On 9 July 2008 the LF withdrew support reducing the Government’s majority to a slim 276 and to quote Sitaram Yechury it was not a “people’s issue”. If 2004 mainstreamed the LF into the Polity then 2008 only derailed them from popular discourse. The LF made it an issue of ‘communist pride’ and drifted away from it’s grassroots position. 2009 was evident to that idea — LF only polling 24 seats, down 35 from 2004. Only one word appeared to surface on TV Channels — U.S Nuclear Deal. It certainly was the biggest upset to a Political Alternative in India. Seemingly, the astute Surjeet to his discreet idiosyncrasy presumed that he could hinder with parliamentary affairs using the 59 seats, enough to scavage the Congress to submitting down the LF’s ambitions. This proved to be a watershed moment as INC made it an issue of national pride leaving the LF with a stained fortune. The Congress of course rode on a wave of pro-incumbency and won 209 seats with 31% of the primary vote — a clear mandate for Congress and it’s allies.
It was this electoral inconsistency that has left the LF at tenterhooks with its voters and its driftaway policies that do not resonate the general populace. This inconsistency has always been at the helm of the Left. Since 1947 the communists have always looked for a way to evangelise and de-intellectualise the Left as well as enter the mainstream. In 1996, after Vajpayee lost the trust vote for his coalition government, there was speculation that Jyoti Basu — then the Chief Minister of West Bengal which he went to hold on to until 2000 — would go on to become Independent India’s first Leftist Prime Minister. Pundits go on to say that if he would have gone on to become the Prime Minister, Communism would have the same if not more political regard than perhaps the BJP. This is the inconsistent political deciphering that has gone on to haunt on the LF time and time again from it’s political decay in West Bengal to the abysmal performance in the Lok Sabha Elections in 2019.
You can’t write off the LF off just yet. In November 2020, The Bihar elections were supposedly one sided and expecting a Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) victory with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and allies cross 140 seats as per exit polls. That didn’t happen but what surprised everyone was the Left’s performance. The CPI-CPI(M)-CPM(L-L) combine crossed 16 seats — almost equalling the Congress’s 19 Seats. The election sent out a clear message — communism is here to stay. It is imperative to mention that the LF has virtually refused to ally with the Congress anywhere until the mention of Bihar that came up — This shows what the Left requires for survival in the indian foray — A platform that will bring the left to the fruits of power. It’s leadership is always in a chaotic spiral and it needs to galvanise the youth to forbear the cusp of communist idealism or whether there is just about any perpetual space left in the 24x7 Juggernaut era of Modi and Shah? It is essentially a political precedent of layback culture in both the Communist parties and the Congress that has led to the current centralised political clique that India has today. In 1962 following the India-China War there was a split in the CPI forming the Marxist faction led by stalwart Jyoti Basu. While the country was suffering from economic and defensive implosion the Left wanted to sort out ‘their’ political differences. How can the left proceed to the pomp of Delhi when they are still stuck to the confinements of political euphoria.
The slated elections that are bound to take place from the 27th March will be a electoral tinderbox and the crescendo that follows will decide the battleground state of Uttar Pradesh which goes to the polls in March 2022 or thereabouts and the rest of India. All eyes are on the former bastion of West Bengal wherein the CPM led LF governed for 34 years on the trot. A lapse in vote share will ensure BJP’s victory albeit if it manages to sway enough votes back to it’s fold it will ensure Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) victory.
Will the Left be able to sickle the Lotus?
