PRAGOTI

Shantanu De Roy

@Anonymous 1:

“do you politically and/ or ideologically believe that, in a single State or in a number of States, Left-led Governments will live the life in eternity, where in Centre, the ruling party has been following the policy of serving the interest of big business and foreign capital ? In reality, one can not forecast the actual lifespan of such governments, you may agree or differ, but the fact remains that in a society ruled by the representatives of big bourgeoisie and feudal lords, in a State or two to three States in isolation, Left-Led governments can not exist in eternity. When the class struggle intensifies, the ruling class does not allow a left party to rule, to be in government and serve the working class and as such and leave no stone unturned in finding the ways of dislodging such governments.”

It has been the desired objective of the ruling class in India to conspire and dislodge the Left Front governments (and previously UF governments of the late 60s) in West Bengal…They did not succeed for almost 30 years…In fact, the Left leaders in the state was of the belief, initially, that the ruling class in India will not allow them to function and would topple the government…Nonetheless, these ruling class parties tried their best to create disturbances ans anarchy in the state…Remember the "economic blockade" that the Congress Party adopted and implemented vis-à-vis West Bengal (in which the present President was one of the mastermind)…Despite these, ruling class parties did not succeed to win away people from the Left and topple the government... Why? Because of our politics; at that time land reform were implemented, 3-tier panchayati raj systems were initiated--in all, there was a change in correlation of class forces in West Bengal, and that’s why the poor and working people rallied behind the Left in increasing numbers….And it is these sections of the population that has been the backbone of Left support over the years in Bengal…The poor in Bengal, looked upon the Left as their allies….

It is this aspect that suffered after 2006 (and to some extent since 2001)…The poor in Bengal increasingly got alienated from the Left…Left's utterances vis-à-vis strikes and bandhs, and its policy of land acquisition increasingly made the poor skeptical about the Left… And this went on and on and on without any check….It was made to believe that implementation of neo-liberal industrialization policy was a choice and not a compulsion….All these had a lasting damaging impact on the image of the Left as pro-poor…It was not a case on intensification of class struggle as you had wrongly pointed out; on the contrary it was a clear cut tendency of class collaboration with ruling class….Unlike in the 80s, there was no political movement for industrialization…The entire process was perceived to be administrative…And the government was given precedence over the Party…Opportunities, thus presented, were readily accepted by the right wing reactionaries in Bengal…

No one here claims that the Left in Bengal (or anywhere else) would be elected for ever…However, the point is why the Left in Bengal suffered reverses in 2011 only and not earlier? And it was not due to organizational and administrative errors that you wrongly gave more emphasis on; it was due to grave political errors that the Left in Bengal had committed over the last 8-9 years…Till date, there has been no effort or initiative from the leadership of state CPI (M) to identify its political shortcomings that had led to erosion of its support base…Neither there has been any attempt to make the leadership accountable for all the blunders that it had committed…If this is the way problems are sought to be resolved, then there is no hope…The CP that was formed by Com. Lenin is a part of history…CPI (M) stands in no comparison to this…

@ Anonymous 2 (RED TAPE)

Well, if you read the history of communist movement and especially history of CPI (M), you will find that CPI (M) has faced many challenges in its past and had overcome those challenges and emerged stronger than before…This is because it had taken CORRECT POLITICAL POSITIONS, organized broad based movements against anti-people policies and by rallying huge sections of the poor and working people that again depends on its politics…IT HAD NOT INDULGED IN BACK DOOR POLITICAL MANEUVERINGS AND HAD NOT RESORTED TO POLITICAL OPPORTUNISM LIKE SUPPORTING CONGRESS CANDIDATES EVEN AT THE COST OF GOING AGAINST ITS OWN POLITICAL LINE THAT WAS ADOPTED AT THE PARTY CONGRESS…

The point is why the “big ship” is sinking and why is it that the CPI (M) is in a challenging position?

Lastly, your last para is meaningless and merits no response....