On June 21, 1977, when Jyoti Basu was sworn in as Bengal's Chief Minister, little did he, his comrades -- or anyone, for that matter -- even dream that 30 years hence, the Left Front would be celebrating three uninterrupted decades of rule in the sta
Factors like anti-incumbency, policy mistakes (like driving away capital or abolition of English from the primary school stage), severe failings (as in health, education and infrastructure), charges of corruption and nepotism, and even glaring instances of use of brute force and high-handednesshave done little to even marginally erode the Left's formidable support base. This hasn't happened anywhere else in the world.
What, then, are the reasons behind the Left Front's seven successive electoral victories? For one, it isn't definitely rigging asopposition parties have vociferously claimed for so long--the strict monitoring of the Assembly polls last year by the Election Commission has demolished that allegation. While the actual reasons are many and a combination of many factors which requires extensive research and analyses, a few major ones stand out.
Another very significant factor behind the unassailability of the CPI(M) is the party's carefully cultivated image as one dedicated to the cause of the poor and the marginalized. The party has always indulged in the pro-poor rhetoric and, to be fair, framed policies and programmes in consonance with it. In the eyes of the people, the CPI(M) and its partners have always remained the parties of the poor and the disadvantaged. Thus, even those who have never benefited from the three decades of Left rule find themselves drawn to the Left parties.
Yet another policy that has stood the CPI(M) in very good stead is the creation of the three-tier panchayati raj system even before it came into existence in the rest of the country. Power and policy-making was, thus, de-centralised and this resulted in lakhs of poor and marginalized villagers finding a voice and becoming the masters of their own destinies. The importance of this cannot beunderscored heavily enough. For the millions in the villages who had always felt ignored by city-based policy makers and the power elite, this newfound power was an important tool for self-governance. They felt that the country's independence, at last, meant sense, and a vital difference, to them. For, till then, they had only considered (and justifiably so) India's independence as an event that made no difference to them for it only resulted in the replacement of one set of rulers (the British) with another (the city-based Indian elite). Naturally, for three decades now, they've been voting for the CPI(M).
By coincidence or otherwise, most of Bengal's pioneering industrial units started declining and going bust; the Bengali owners of the surviving ones were forced to sell their units to non-Bengali traders. These developments only strengthened the impression that Delhi, especially Nehru, was hell-bent on destroying Bengalis. Even today, many well-read, educated and accomplished Bengalis believe that Nehru and other Congress leaders in Delhi harboured ill-will towards Bengal and Bengalis due to the challenge thrown up by Subhas Chandra Bose.
When such feelings were at their peak in the early and mid-1970s, thanks to a series of unfortunate events and circumstances that had overcome Bengal, the CPI(M) entered the scene with its strong anti-Delhi rhetoric. Accusing Delhi of neglecting Bengal and displaying a dictatorial attitude became the cornerstone of the CPI(M)'s policies and pronouncements. For Bengalis, who had so far suffered under pusillanimous Congressmen ruling the state and taking orders from Delhi (with notable exceptions like Bidhan Chandra Ray), the voluble CPI(M) leaders with their strong anti-Delhi and anti-Congress rhetoric appeared as real heroes brave enough to challenge Delhi's hegemony. The CPI(M) followed this battle through, as in the case of Haldia Petrochemicals that the state built on its own after Delhi refused to finance or even sanction the project, saying it would be unviable.
The CPI(M), thus, re-kindled Bengali pride and, in the process, made itself inseparable from middle-class Bengalis. The party also tactfully aligned itself with middle-class values, customs and prejudices to strengthen its base among this section that, all over the world, is conservative and plays a critical role in electoral victories. In order to align itself with the middle-class Bengalis, the CPI(M) didn't mind championing conservative values that went against its own liberal philosophy like, for example, decreeing that girls should wear only sarees, and not"north Indian dresses" like salwar-kameez (leave aside western attire) to college. The Bengali middle-classes (and also lower middle classes), thus, became strong CPI(M) supporters and remain so till this day. In fact, with the CPI(M) now championing industrialization and liberalisation that'll create more jobs, the support of the middle-classes has only become stronger.
Along with this, the party started establishing its vice-like grip over other institutions, including hallowed ones like Calcutta University and Presidency College. All institutions were subverted and made to do the party's bidding. And at the same time, the state administrative machinery was also infiltrated and politicized. The bureaucracy and the police force became mere adjuncts of the party. All this was done very quietly, systematically and efficiently. The CPI(M) ensured only its members and supporters got government jobs, including that of school and college teachers. These teachers, in turn, ensured that indoctrination of youngsters started at a very early age, right from the school level, and continued through college and university.
The CPI(M)'s students' arm, the SFI, ensured that non-believers or opponents (of the party and its Marxist ideology) were harassed and even driven out of institutions. So strong has been the stranglehold of the party over all aspects of people's lives that it has effectively snuffed out all independentthought and behaviour, especially in Bengal's semi-urban and rural areas where the grip is much stronger thanin Kolkata. The help and cooperation of the state machinery has also ensured the CPI(M)'s repeated electoral victories, though this is not to suggest that the state machinery has aided or abetted large-scale subversion of the electoral process. That, as stated earlier in this article, is just not the case. But the state machinery has undoubtedly been rendering help to the CPI(M) at the hustings, and while such help has definitely been critical in ensuring larger victory margins for the CPI(M), it has not ensured victory per se.
Defiance at the workplace, mainly government but also many private establishments, meets with similar response from the omnipresent party cadres. It is, thus, small wonder that no credible, charismatic and coherent non-communist politician gifted with a vision (all these qualities leads to Mamata Banerjee's exclusion) has emerged in Bengal over the last three decades. As for the ones who had been around when the Left Front took over the reins, they have mostly been co-opted (and corrupted) by the CPI(M) to the extent that they no longer command any credibility in Bengal, even though some of them occupy positions of power in Delhi (with the CPI-M's blessings, of course).
Whatever little political opposition remains in Bengal (read: Mamata Banerjee and her party) is vacuous and commands little support (once again notwithstanding Singur and Nandigram), as last year's Assembly polls have shown. Given this, it is inevitable that the CPI(M) and its junior partners win one election after another. And, unless Bengal's present set of rulers make extremely stupid mistakes (here, Singur and Nandigram should stand out as ominous warnings) or a host of unfavourable and unforeseen factors combine to mount a strong challenge to the Left, the last seven electoral verdicts in the state will witness repetition.
Thirty years in power is definitely an occasion that calls for celebration. But it ought to set people thinking about and exploring the factors that have led to creation of such history. And in this exploration will one discover the total subversion, and deliberate extinction, of the very ethos of multi-party democracy in Bengal. A thousand flowers definitely don't bloom, at least not the non-red variety, in Bengal. That's sad and that's the most unfortunate fallout of three decades of communist rule in Bengal.