Amulya Ganguli
It cannot be a coincidence that the ascendancy of the Right-wing BJP has been accompanied by the decline of the Centre-Left and the Left. This transition from one side of the ideological spectrum to the other is based as much on the preference of the electorate, as it is on a convincing articulation of the party line by the winner and missteps by the loser.
For decades after Indepe-ndence, it was the Centre-Left and the Left which dominated Indian politics and also academia. Politically, they were represented mainly by the Congress and the communists, with the socialists somewhere in between. The Right had only a marginal presence in the shape of the Jan Sangh. The Hindu Mahasabha was of no consequence then as now.
It is in the last three decades that the scene has been turned upside down. Not only that, the rise of the Right has been so dramatic and the decline of the Centre-Left/Left so precipitous that the chances of the latter making up lost ground in the near future appear to be a remote possibility.
Arguably, even if the Centre-Left, viz. the Congress, is able to make a partial recovery – after all, it is in power in Punjab and fared satisfactorily in the recent parliamentary polls in Kerala apart from having won three assembly elections in central and northern India last winter – the communists appear to be in dire straits. It is not impossible that they are on the way to join the socialists, who, too, had a notable presence till the 1970s, but have now virtually disappeared.
Yet, the communists, with the CPI(M) at their head, were in power for three decades in West Bengal till 2011, for 35 years in two terms in Tripura till 2018, and are still in power in Kerala though the Congress is on a comeback trail. But it is the CPI(M)’s dismal showing in the parliamentary elections which has become a cause of concern in the party since it has been able to win a mere three Lok Sabha seats – down from 43 in 2004 – leading to conjectures about the party general secretary, Sitaram Yechury’s resignation.
Could the CPI(M) have averted the slide in the company of other communists like the CPI, the RSP, the Forward Bloc and even the CPI(M-L), as well as the Congress and others? Yechury is right in saying that no gathbandhan could have stopped the BJP’s aggressive Hindu nationalistic, jingoistic offensive.
But the CPI(M)’s own narrative is too steeped in the familiar Marxist fetishes against foreign investment and privatization and favouring higher taxes and reservations in the private sector to appeal to today’s aspirational generation, who will be amused rather than impressed by the advocacy for India to stand by countries like Venezuela which are “being attacked by US imperialism”.
As long as the Left remains immersed in the days when the Soviet Union was still around, its road downhill is assured. What is worse is that any party of the Centre-Left which associates with the comrades will share their dismal fate. Evidence of this fatal partnership was available in 2008 when the Congress-Left alliance at the Centre broke up because of the communist objections to the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Although the Congress returned to power a year later, the “socialist” bug implanted in its functioning led to the policy paralysis which scuttled the economic reforms and handed the issue of rapid development on a platter to Narendra Modi, who exploited it to the full. Since then, the Congress has been lost in the political wilderness, unable to decide whether it should pursue Sonia Gandhi’s populism or side to some extent with the suited and booted capitalists who had been mocked by Rahul Gandhi for being close to Modi.
It is obvious that the Congress’s and the Left’s decline is a godsend to the BJP. As long as there is ideological confusion on the left of the spectrum with no certainty on whether Market or Marx provides the answer to the economic woes, the Right can wear its patriotism on its sleeves and decry its critics as anti-nationals who should go to Pakistan. (IPA)
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