Dasvidaniya... Phew!

Mamata Banerjee’s alliance reduced the Left to a tremulous entity in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. It had been ‘Ek dhakka aur do’ time ever since—the power punch was delivered last week. The Left has been mauled in Bengal, it’s reeling in Kerala, Tripura is too small to count and the Communists don’t matter elsewhere anyway. So, it’s not premature to write the political obituary of the Left in India.

It had exerted a disproportionate influence on national discourse for two reasons: the Left was the preferred ideology of the intelligentsia because of its alleged empathy for the poor. India’s literati, chatterati and professorati were locked into an abiding romance with the Left, overlooking their myriad sins. The “intellectual” was always distrustful of the Congress but, more importantly, had a morbid distaste for nationalist politics, which found expression in their passionate hatred for the BJP.

Second, since Indira Gandhi turned “pink” after she broke with the “fuddy-duddy” Syndicate Congress in 1969, she gave the Left a respectability in mainstream politics it had been denied hitherto because Communists were seen as irrational, violent, frightening people. Left-oriented politics came up trumps thereafter. When Indira tried to remove the Left’s clutches, it was too late and once she was routed in 1977, the Left not only emerged as a ruling force in three states but also appeared unstoppable in its upward electoral mobility.

During its three-and-a-half decades of dominance, what did the Left actually do? Besides hypocritical pontification, little else. Jyoti Basu is still held in awe by starry-eyed journalists and Communist cadre. But the man is actually guilty of West Bengal’s deindustrialisation. He is responsible for demolishing such revered institutions of higher learning as Presidency College, packing college staff rooms with party apparatchiks, even goons. The Left systematically promoted a non-work ethic, so much so that it was jocularly said if revolution struck Bengal after 5 pm, government employees would demand overtime to participate! Its near-decimation in Bengal and ouster in Kerala will have one beneficial effect. Regional parties will stop looking to AKG Bhavan in Delhi for ideological inspiration and practical guidance. The manifestos of a wide array of regional parties—the TDP and Samajwadi Party, in particular—were dominated by leftist ideological tripe. Chandrababu Naidu even named his party’s highest decision-making body the politburo. The Left enjoyed power without responsibility in several non-Congress coalition regimes at the Centre, starting with V.P. Singh’s National Front and used this clout to block a series of economic reforms.

Admittedly, Sonia Gandhi is mesmerised by jholawalas and their spendthrift agendas forcing Manmohan Singh to virtually abandon economic reforms, though he is no longer shackled by the Left. But we know this too shall pass: either Sonia will discover her icons are false prophets and get disillusioned, or this government will be voted out in the next election, paving the way for further reforms. As in countries they once ruled, Communists curbed people’s entrepreneurial drive and imposed statist mediocrity with disastrous results.

The intelligentsia’s love affair with the Left, the stranglehold of Marxist ideologues over big universities and the Congress’s past cooption of leftist ideas resulted in a spell of stagnation in key areas. It also depleted India’s national resolve and self-esteem, for leftist views came to be associated with subversive ideas, bordering on insurrection and separatism. True, today even Naxalites don’t spout their one-time slogan ‘China’s Chairman is our Chairman’, but the Left is identified as a force that has never internalised the Indian ethos.

With the Left close to terminal decline, its erstwhile domination of the trade union movement too is ebbing. At last count, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh is India’s largest central TU organisation, followed by the Congress-backed INTUC. From the cultural, intellectual spheres down to working class arenas, the Left faces rejection all across. Hopefully, India will now be freed of the arrogance, self-righteousness and condescension of ‘Marx-putras’ who could never fully integrate with the Indian consciousness. All at sea dealing with social realities such as caste and religion, the Left was always a foreign organism in India’s body politic. The bhoomiputras have shown them their place. Leftism is being fast replaced by welfarism/egalitarianism as our dominant ideology. The Left lost the race because it always lacked a humanitarian appeal. India will be a better place without the organised Left calling the shots, despite its limited influence on the ground.