The Prime Minister?s assertion on the 123 agreement of the nuclear arrangement with the US, silencing Prakash Karat and his perennial threats to ensure that the government does not function in any sphere, or deliver what it has been addressing and working on, was hugely welcome. And, wouldn?t it have been delightful to find the BJP and the CPM playing the ?game? as one team! Sadly, instead of going the whole hog and sticking to his guns, Karat backtracked and threatened to take his revenge on this rebuff another time. Advantage Manmohan Singh. Bullies are always weak!
Apart from ?supporting? the UPA from outside, Karat and his vociferous gang have managed to reduce the possibility of intelligent ?consensus? politics into a constant play of veiled blackmail. Democracy seems anathema to them, and they prefer to play the game much like they did when in college. They are always on the streets yelling blue murder against other parties and leadership in states they do not rule, but on the inhuman horrors of Nandigram and other such happenings in West Bengal, their silence is deafening. This glaring hypocrisy is blinding.
Sadly, the Left, with its splinters that could not achieve any consensus and therefore had to split into smaller parties, has not grown with the changed times, has not learned how to engage in dialogue and debate, has not been able to step out of its politburo confines and grasp new ideas and aspirations, and has not been able to pull the poor out of their generational misery despite having ruled Bengal despotically for decades. Why did the Left fail when it was all powerful? Is it the frustration of its failure and the glaring need for its ?ideology? to be restructured for relevance, circa 2007, which compels the CPM to stall another government?s initiatives? Are Indian Leftists intellectually lazy and thus unable to look and step out of the box? Are they programmed, like robots, to stagnate and stand still? Are they conditioned not to extend their minds beyond the diktat? Do they have no creative thinking within the politburo? Are they all just plain comfortable spouting out the same old rhetoric that is being discarded worldwide in its old form? And, why are they determined to control the minds and actions of first their comrades and then the world at large? Why do they behave like military generals in civvies? Is there a difference between Left rule and Army rule?
It would make so much more sense if the Left would readjust to a changed world, open its eyes and look at the fresh aspirations, concerns and demands of a generation that wants to break free, whether rural or urban, privileged or not. Dictatorial arrogance, under the pretence of egalitarian procedures and methodologies, has been exposed. The politburo is privileged and the rest are expected to follow their ageing leaders blindly, much like mindless clones, without questioning anything or using their brains. The leaders, in turn, refuse to let go, give up and pass the baton, no different from the other parties they damn; 60-plus is considered young! What a waste.
Despite the interventions of the Left, the report card of the UPA looks better than one had expected. Foreign policy initiatives, the RTI, GDP growth and calm on the communal front, so far. The one major disaster that the UPA succumbed to was the forest and tribal bill, spearheaded by Ms Karat, based on unintelligent, uninformed knee-jerk populism. This will be the single most destructive legacy that the unborn Indian will inherit, have to face and fight, one that will devastate the natural environment which sustains life and generates the oxygen to breathe.
Now that the Prime Minister has stuck to his guns, the next 18 months should ideally see fresh initiatives unfold as a lead up to the elections. And let them pull the rug!
