Debacle of the Left revisited

The developments over the past few days has once again depicted that the CPI-M leadership was not ready to accept the writing on the wall. The political violence that followed the Lok Sabha elections in the state of West Bengal is a proof that the opposition have now gained the physical, political and moral authority to counter the Left atrocities.

The post-poll violence shows that the CPI-M, rather than learning from past mistakes and misdeeds and rectifying accordingly, is trying to hold on to the ground only by exerting force and not fighting the battle politically.

The steps taken by the state government following the cyclone that lashed large parts of West Bengal also shows that the administration led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharya was desperate to prove that it was alive and active. However, that it is more interested in portraying its political authority rather than working towards mitigating the plight of the affected people was more evident.

The barracking that Mr Bhattacharya faced from the people caught up in the relief camps, manhandling of a CPI-M lawmaker and an administrator close to the main constituent of the ruling Left Front, were something that couldn't even be thought of over the past three decades leave aside such events becoming a reality.

Despite such events, the government as well as the Left Front, especially the CPI-M leadership, are working on creating a wedge between the two main constituents of the opposition alliance, namely the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, over attending the all-party meeting over the cyclone Aila, which was deemed nothing more than a farce by the media.

This effort by the state government also proves the point mentioned before, i.e. the CPI-M leadership is trying more to impose the stamp of their political authority, following the drubbing at the recently held Lok Sabha polls, rather than helping the people getting over the crisis of such magnitude.

It is this politics of negativism and opportunism, which has been the hallmark of Left politics in India, especially over the past three decades in West Bengal. Although the Left leaders have in the past managed to garb their politics of negativism and opportunism under a progressive veil, it would not be possible to do so again as they have been exposed in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.