Communists Vs Communism

On June 21^st LF in West Bengal completed 30 years in power . For a political party it is too long a period to have achieved its political goals and implemented its programmes for being in power without any break. Implementation of land reform, campaign for registered tenant farmers (Operation Barga), introduction of three-tier Panchayat system, achieving food-grain surplus are certainly some of the glowing achievements of the Left rule. But, at the end of the thirtieth year of the Left rule, the party stands discredited for its dubious role in Singur and Nandigram. The avoidable blood-letting has seriously dented the pro-poor image of the party. However, this is unlikely to affect the electoral prospects of the party as it seems to have a committed cadre who can safeguard the party's interests at the hustings at any cost and at the cost of other parties. Over the years the party's influence over the proletariat appears to have thinned even as it electorally remains the undisputed Numero Uno of the state.

The party appears to have been caught in a time warp. The party leaders have ironically acquired an ivory- tower image. The overzealousness of the party to cash in from the neo-liberalization has further distanced it from socialist ideals. Knowingly or unknowingly it has jumped into the bandwagon of the laissez fare protagonists. Tatas and Birlas who were once class enemies of the party are today their darlings. Instead of championing the cause of the poor and the proletariat, the party seems to be patently espousing a capitalist agenda. All these un-Communists-like features will prove to be its undoing in the long run. Interestingly, National Leaders of the party, graduated from the JNU campus, are rather text-bookish and far-fetched dogmatic and are contented with the existing set-up typical of a status-quoist but uncharacteristic for a comrade.

The present central leadership is too weak to question the state leadership due to their flimsy seniority and brittle and little cadre-support. The Singur Firing and the internecine factional fight between Shri Achyuthanadan, the CM of Kerala and Shri Pinarayi Vijayan, the General Secretary of the Party's Kerala Unit recently are two cases in point where the central leadership could not effectively mediate and control the units. In both the cases the Central leadership proves to be helpless and spineless to take proper cognizance and appropriate action to stem the rot and arrest the so-called revisionary acts of the comrades. SO much so that the party is has become a fire-wall around the Congress Party reminding the role of the CPI during Indira Gandhi's days. However, the leadership ensures that they react on any and every issue similar to the manner after the horses have bolted from the stable.

Maybe the party's thirty years rule in the West Bengal also falls into a category of lack-lustre performance primarily thanks to the Congressisation of the party. The sooner the party leadership exorcises the evils of the parliamentary democracy from its leaders the better for the party and the polity.