Left Front government: In Memoriam

The Left Front government in West Bengal, by all means, is on its way out. The body language of the opposition leader, the ministers, the officials, most importantly, the voters suggests so. I am trying to look back on the Left rule, not in anger but with my fulfilled and unfulfilled desires.
On June 21, 1977, when Left Front came to power, I was a just a beautiful dream, in the hearts of my then unmarried parents. In fact, my father’s bigger dream at that point of time was of making a new Bengal. During the previous government’s rule, he had to go through a lot of torture for being a member of Communist Party of India (Marxist). He, like many of his comrades, didn’t bow under that pressure and continued the movement. Therefore, when Jyoti Basu and his cabinet were sworn in, it was not just the party’s victory, it was also a personal victory for party members like him.
The thing about that generation of Communists was, they had an even bigger dream – of revolution. Those were the days of Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia et al. The Left Front government, therefore, had the task of not only providing better governance than the previous Congress government but also governing so well that people in other parts of India would think Communists should be in power all over the country.
Having declared long ago that they believe revolution can be achieved through Parliamentary democracy, that was to be CPI(M)’s path to revolution. This is revolution not in the Leninist sense, but in the Gramscian sense. Besides, Left Front was not just CPI(M), it was a conglomerate of like-minded parties.
The first step towards achieving those goals was, as it should have been, revolutionising the villages of Bengal. So Basu’s government, under the leadership of land reforms minister Benoy Chowdhury, pursued the agenda of giving land to sharecroppers. ‘Operation Barga’ had a huge success in economically empowering the poor of rural Bengal. The next step was giving political power to them. To do that, the government set up a three-tier panchayat system.
In 1982, when I was born, the panchayat movement was taking shape. My father was at the forefront. He won the election and was given charge of a panchayat samity (the middle tier). Back then, CPI(M) was not a pack of just middle-aged and old men. My father became the sabhapati at the age of 33. Today, when the fashion is to say: “Left Front has done nothing for Bengal,” I would beg to differ.
What surely remained neglected under the Left rule is Kolkata. But my country lives in villages. And I don’t want development like Hyderabad, where the city is plush but is filled with beggars who come from the outskirts and villages, for they have no choice. The areas that didn’t get the benefits of Operation Barga and panchayati raj are the tribal areas, hence the Maoists. But let the biggest political analyst, the most knowledgible economist and the most brilliant statistician come and tell me this government has done nothing for even rural Bengal. I’ll show them how the housemaid has become administrator, how the rickshaw puller has started talking on even terms with the rich and middle class rider.
Why then, one might ask, has this government lost its popularity even among the rural voters?
First, people have lost faith in comrades. Nowadays, when a party member tells a farmer: “Give up your land for the factory, you’ll get good compensation and your son will get a job there. You’re not getting enough out of that small piece of land anyway,” the farmer instantly believes the man is lying even if he is not. That is because this farmer knows how that crook uses his affiliation to the ruling party to run all kinds of murky business. Corruption, in a word, has detached the party from the poor.
Second, the heady smell of power has made dictators out of comrades. This is true at all levels. The panchayat member at Shashan and the chief minister share the same sentiments. They forgot long time ago that they are in power by the grace of the people. The secretary of the local committee thinks he can say whatever he likes, can do whatever he thinks should be done, and people will not say anything. His top boss Biman Bose, sitting in Kolkata, thinks he can abuse even a High Court judge and yet people will support his party. People don’t say anything, they just vote, against the Left.
Third, a result of the first two - bad governance. When the ruling party is corrupt and conceited, how can it provide good governance? Even the panchayat system has turned into a machinery of oppression.
Talking about my fulfilled desires, there aren’t any. I had two ambitions. First, and this I have always kept a secret, I wanted to become a full-time party worker. I wanted to become a journalist in case I could not become worthy of the Communist party. I could not, it seems. I had joined the Students Federation of India to learn politics but I pulled out. Why? I realised my leaders knew less than me. Most of them have never read the Communist Manifesto. Some of them don’t even know the spelling of Marx, and they would take any Tom, Dick and Harry under their wings, even if they are pathologically anti-Left.
Unfulfilled desires? Many. Revolution in India, at least a Communist-led government at the centre, Bakreswar Thermal Power Project, rendering Mamata Banerjee meaningless etc. Let those be unfulfilled. As a Communist at heart, I wish this Left Front government is removed. Without tragedy there can be no catharsis.

P.S. My father gave up his administrative post in the late ’90s to concentrate on party organisation. Little did he realise that nobody around him was interested in the party, because money is where power is, not where organisation is. With such comrades around, who needs bourgeois?