It’s A Small World

The Left Hand

• NREGA was launched in 2006 keeping in mind the Left's stated goal of universalising employment
• Holding up interest rates for EPF, also fought against linking these investments with the stockmarket
• A steady stream of protests against price rise and corruption has been the hallmark of the Left presence in India
• Protested against displacement of farmers from their land during acquisition for industrial projects. Ironically, did the opposite in West Bengal—with disastrous consequences.
• Discouraging FDI, which put them at loggerheads with former partner Congress. Is also opposed to export-oriented mining.
• The Left has argued for greater investment in agriculture, education, health as a percentage of GDP, though without much success
• Has been strongly opposed to moves to discard the public distribution system

***

Still, those who waited for this moment feel rewarded at last: ‘It isn’t like the economy depended on them’, ‘No one really counted on their support’ goes some of the refrain. The accusations are many: that the Left held back meaningful reform in the pensions arena; that it stalled education reforms; that it unionised workers which in turn wrecked industry; that it stalled disinvestment in PSUs at the cost of fiscal prudence; that they supported “regressive” anti-poor subsidies for petrol, diesel etc, thus fuelling mafias across the country.

Well the doors are open now and UPA-II does not have to deal with the Communist parties even as any sort of force in the Opposition. Already, there are urgent cries for a quick succession of pending economic reforms. “We need meaningful pension reform right now while demography is in our favour,” argues commentator Jerry Rao. The former CEO of software firm MphasiS BFL points out several decisions the government can take, from introducing education vouchers to agreeing to GM foods to double deductions for employer contributions to provident funds. “This last step will be employment-friendly, it will encourage people to create permanent jobs, and encourage greater savings. We need such ideas,” he says.

With one of the world’s largest populations aged 30 or under and a 500 million-strong workforce, India still has pension cover (or any social security) for less than 1 per cent of the people. Protection of their rights was a strong rallying point for Left leaders everywhere. While unions insist that a majority of companies escape the “compulsory” provident fund net unchecked (and hence should be penalised), reformists are magnetised by pension schemes backed by a mixture of investments in private stock and government bonds. Because of its inherent uncertainty, this is something the Left opposed tooth and nail, and its leaders insist they still will.

Critics say the perception that the Left fuelled economic policy paralysis is because lately they had pursued one line for India—against foreign investment, for instance—and another for Bengal, by tying up with international magnates to invest in specially designed zones. The beating they got at the hustings have Left leaders quite contrite over these decisions. It hasn’t helped that the buzz surrounding them after they “saved” India from the global financial crisis—by blocking pension funds liberalisation and deregulation of banking or stockmarkets—has also fizzled out.

“We should have pursued our own system of land acquisition and rehabilitation in Bengal, instead of trying to follow rules set by the Centre,” admits CPI leader D. Raja on the state’s attempts over 2007-08 to unsuccessfully free land in Singur for the Rs 4,000-crore Tata car production facility. By 2009, CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was saying he regretted the use of police force in Nandigram, another part of the state, where 14 locals were killed in huge protests over land acquisition.

That said, with the Centre itself under pressure now from accusations of crony capitalism (a.k.a. India’s “robber barons”), there is a rising notion that with the Left’s decline the country may have lost a restraining voice in politics and business. Left leaders insist their relevance is unchallenged, and it doesn’t matter whether or not they’re in power. “We’ll still be a force to be reckoned with in coming days,” says Raja, citing several ongoing movements, protests and agitations—against the recent fuel price hike, against inflationary exports and against “anti-worker” changes in labour laws—all of which has implications for business.

CPI(M) politburo member M.K. Pandhe says another change has crept up unnoticed, which will reflect on the economy in coming years: a coming together of unions, across party lines, as a counter to a defensive government keen on pursuing reforms. “Not a single union is out of the picture in opposing inflation, fuel price hike, ‘hire-and-fire’, disinvestments, insurance liberalisation and privatisation of agriculture. Even the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, which always stood apart, has joined us,” says Pandhe.

Outside politics, as a movement representing the oppressed/exploited people, leftism will grow, predicts labour historian and intellectual Dilip Simeon, referring to the mass movements and networks on issues such as displacement, land alienation, eroding workers’ rights, sezs, RTI, NREGA, communal violence, violence against women, child labour, police atrocities and human rights. He says it wasn’t just about the Leftists in power pursuing an aggressive land acquisition policy that led to accusations of running a “state-enabled corporate tyranny”. In Simeon’s words, the state is in “danger of losing its status as the neutral arbiter of social conflict, and emerging as the benefactor of one side”.

How this shapes up for business and the pursuit of higher growth rates is anybody’s guess—governments that have championed reforms tend to be voted out at first opportunity, whereas the Left gained the largest parliamentary presence in ’04 after it consistently opposed reform. Surajit Mazumdar, associate professor of economics at Ambedkar University, Delhi, says, “The assembly poll results may appear to provide an opportunity to push ‘reforms’, but they certainly don’t provide the justification for it.”

It’s been a long road from 1991, when reforms began, to today. The ‘India Shining’ narrative of the early 2000s was first replaced by the ‘trickledown’ theory of growth, which is now giving way to another idea—“inclusive growth”. Through each of these, the Left has behaved like a workman who sold off, one by one, all his most important tools—including the consistent application of the ideas it brandishes at the Centre in the states it ruled. This election could be a direct outcome of that selloff, and not really as big a vote for higher GDP growth.