Leftism is not spelt CPM.

Monday, May 16, 2011.

We are a nation of preconceived ideas that remain rigid to the end and also refuse to come out of the garb of time. Evolution thus is a painful process that sometimes doesn’t even take place. A recent example could be cited as the defeat of CPM (the Bhadralok Empire) in the hands of Trinmooll Congress, an ally of the Centrist party, Congress. This defeat is termed as a major blow to the Left. The idea being CPM was a Leftist party. India always being a bit more towards Centre, the Nehru-Gandhi (Indira, Rajiv etc…) nexus, we seem to have forgotten the etymology of the word Leftist:

“The terms Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution, referring to the seating arrangement in the Estates General; those who sat on the left generally supported the radical changes of the revolution, including the creation of a republic and secularization.” (Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright (2006), The Government and Politics of France, Routledge.)

This notions brings us to a more comprehensive and global meaning of Leftism, it does not only pertain to a certain ideology opposing the government of the day, but it also stems from the fact that all those who believe in social equality, freedom of speech, access to human rights fall in the purview of Leftism. In other words, CPM’s defeat is not the defeat of Left. As a matter of fact, as long as there is, on the one hand, oppression, inequality and, on the other hand, people to fight against it, Leftism cannot be defeated. Mamta Banerjee, thanks to her proletarian postures during the Tata Nano fiasco, emerged as more Leftist than the archetypical Left itself.

West Bengal needed a politico-social metamorphose. The 34 years rule by CPM doesn’t necessarily translate into the failure of the Left; it’s the CPM that failed, eventually leading the State to share its fate with the BIMAROU states. West Bengal has faced a brain drain within the country itself. This irony must have been able to stare at the face of the voter, who had voted out the anachronism. Thanks to the apathy of the ousted government; the State was made to survive the clutches of misery albeit its preponderance in the domain of intellect: two Nobel awards and a few excellent writers.

The 150^th anniversary of a thinker, poet, realist, Rabindrath Tagore coincides with the ouster of a party that might have been the first choice of people 34 years ago, yet it stands routed at its fort today. The symbolic moment also clears the path to a vision of Bengal; the visionary Tagore must have had in the beginning of the 20^th century. On this anniversary one can take a resolution to never allow Leftism to be defeated. In many developed societies, it has also transformed into Socialism. By letting defeat the Left, we might fall in the trap of protecting an autocratic and totalitarian system. As Indrajit Hajra writes in his Sunday 15 May article: “Martin Luther was as serious a Christian as the Pope in Rome. But it was the latter, bloated and ossified and corrupt that he protested against. Mamata Banerjee, in a similar sense, wants to protect the Left and its abandoned flock. Her war was always against the church of the CPI(M)”.