Sir — This refers to the editorial, “A giant leap” (March 5). There is no mistaking the fact that the BJP’s electoral victory in the hitherto red bastion of Tripura, displacing the CPI(M) Government and banishing the CPI(M) hook, line and sinker, is spectacular. That this reflects a level of complete disillusionment with the left parties is beyond question. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, after Jyoti Basu stabilised the left front rule in West Bengal, the joke among sympathisers of Indian communist parties was that the CPI(M) ruled four States — West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura and Jawaharlal Nehru University.
The defeat of the CPI(M) in Tripura is possibly an event of greater historical significance than the BJP’s sweep of the State because it marks the most important point in the demise of the left as a parliamentary political force. The BJP’s shunya-to-shikhar story is as much a dream-come-true for the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo, as it is a nightmare for the estranged couple of Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat.