Finally, it looks like the Left Front is on its way out in West Bengal after over three decades of continuous rule?an almost impossible record in India and comparable to major entrenched regimes like those in Mexico or Japan. To call it the end of an era would be an understatement?many Bengali young adults today have grown up thinking ?Mukhyamantri-Sri-Jyoti-Basu? was a single word. The recent appeal from this venerable Basu to Congressmen to save the Left Front in the polls therefore was ironical. Nowhere in the country, not even in Kerala, has the Left movement had as deep and firm roots as in West Bengal. It may be the Bengali psyche?even Tagore and later, Ray have generally cast businessmen in poor light; it could be the steady decline in the state?s yeoman role in national politics dating from the capital move to Delhi and the rise of Gandhi in Congress; it could be the devastating effects of Partition that brought millions of East Bengali refugees dispossessed of all they had to a state machinery largely indifferent to their misery. Whatever it is, Bengalis have always leaned to the Left.
Nevertheless, the current innings has been surprising to most. When the Left came to power on its own in 1977?barring a short-lived hoch-poch formation earlier with a dissident Congress break-away ? it was on the back of the anti-Emergency wave that had swept much of India. The Left Front-Janata Party seat-sharing plan had broken down on lines that would be laughable today. Remarkably, Left?s vote share in seven Assembly elections has been remarkably steady, slightly below 50% in over three decades.
In spite of its long stay in power and the unquestioning loyalty of some of aantel-loving Bengal?s brightest intellectual lights, the Left could never quite win Kolkata over. (Some of these same intellectuals are now, finally, deserting the Left and it is tragicomic to learn of film-maker Mrinal Sen?s ?demotion? from the stage in the recent film festival in Kolkata following his involvement in Nandigram-related protests.) It is hardly surprising then that its nemesis, Mamata Banerjee, had started her long and arduous electoral journey by upsetting the redoubtable Somnath Chatterjee from a Kolkata Lok Sabha seat. The city dweller has little to thank the Left for. Jyoti Basu had all but halted industry in Bengal. Bengal in the 80?s had become synonymous with labour trouble, a branding issue that, rightly or wrongly, dogs it to this date. Economists Timothy Besley and Robin Burgess of London School of Economics have shown that the ?pro-labour? states in India have ended up with higher unemployment, lower wage rates and lower per capita income. West Bengal under the Left rule would be the poster boy of that analysis. Between 1980-81 and 2007-08 West Bengal has dropped from 11th to 16th rank among states and UTs in terms of per capita income ? a fall from 6th to 11th rank if one considers only large states.
Villages are another story. Indeed, if any one factor cemented the Left rule in West Bengal, it was land reforms in the early eighties. State-wide land redistribution brought improved socio-economic conditions of millions of poor in the state ?millions that understandably pledged their undying loyalty to the ?party?. The best poll performance of the Left Front were in 1982 and 1987. The political capital created there had lasted the formation for well over a decade and a half?at least into the late nineties.
Power inevitably corrupts. Systematic control of every political institution in the state ranging from the autorickshaw driver union to tenants? associations in large complexes, not to speak of the police force?after all totalitarianism is inherent to the Left movement everywhere?corrupts faster. By the mid to late 90?s the culture within the Left was showing unmistakable signs of change?for the worse. Benoy Chowdhuri, the architect of land reforms, was publicly humiliated and died a disillusioned man. Debabrata Bandyopadhyay, the bureaucratic fulcrum of that movement, is, today, one of Mamata Banerjee?s key advisors. As the generation born during Left rule came of age, the old slogans of ?capitalist conspiracy? began to sound hollow to the cadres themselves. Leftism had gradually descended from an ideology to a means of alternative informal employment for these famously ?cadre-based? parties. ?Promoter-raj?, facilitated with goons enjoying police protection, seemed like fair returns for party allegiance and the decadence had set in.
Buddhababu tried to change course somewhat but in vain. Arrogance and the decadence of power are formidable obstacles. He has also proved to be an inept political manager. He had created considerable political goodwill by 2004 just by talking about ?work culture? and frankly admitting to shortcomings in the otherwise Orwellian Left culture. He managed to lose it amazingly fast with Singur and Nandigram.
While all these historic trends have played their roles, there is no denying that the proximate cause of the Left?s crumbling is one person? Mamata Banerjee. No politician in India comes even close in the steadfast spirited opposition and personal courage that she has displayed in her almost personal battle against the Left for over two decades now. The latest turning point in the anti-Left campaign in West Bengal was most certainly her fast on the Singur issue two years ago. Almost Gandhian in personal lifestyle, completely devoted the single-point issue of unseating the Left, she has brought about what few in India had ever thought possible.
But it may still be too early to write the epitaph of the Left in West Bengal. First, Mamata?s campaign hinges critically on her pact with Congress, which will have to keep in mind national political calculations and the need to maintain an identity for itself in the state. Besides, holding on to Bengal would be the bigger challenge. But it will bring about much-needed political balance in the state. Finally, the big question is what will Mamata replace the Left with? Ironically Mamata may well be only true communist left in West Bengal now. There is a possibility that the ghost of the Left may be even more potent than the Left in flesh and blood.
The author teaches at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad