If the CPM is not going to be part of a Government at the Centre or not going to be a king-maker, voters in Bengal may well give it the thumbs-down
The zig-zagging course of politics has decreed the campaign for the 2014 general election will be delirious and frenzied, in contrast to the feverish and hectic efforts. Every political party senses an opportunity to be part of the anticipated complexity of Government formation after the results are out. Somewhat hesitantly, the CPI(M) and its left allies have put in a bid, with a 10-point alternative of ‘policies’ that are as obvious as they are stale.
The collective leadership of the left has arrived at what are only foregone conclusions; the coalition of ‘democratic and secular’ forces will begin their fruitless or fruitful negotiations to cobble together an alternative Government only after the results are out. There will be no pre-poll alliances, the leadership has ruled. The second conclusion is as unreal as it reveals a fussy tidiness that is at total variance to the chaos of Indian politics: A three month period from July when the leadership will engage in conversations with other parties. And finally, a wary statement from CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat, that, “If you can run a big political campaign, this alternative can be formed.”
Before the CPI(M) and its partners could settle down to initiating the conversations, the Samajwadi Party sent an emissary to the popularly best known CPI(M) leader from West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Kolkata. The signal was obvious; the Samajwadi Party needed to understand what the West Bengal party thought about an alternative, because the differences in perception within the CPI(M) have created problems in the past for coalition makers.
The insularity of the CPI(M)'s West Bengal leadership has reached a point in recent years where it seems to have nothing to contribute to the nation's politics. This abdication of responsibility is in contrast to its representation at the top table of the party, where, at least formally, four of the leaders are permanently ensconced. The emissary from Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav was a prod to West Bengal to get out of the hole into which it had scuttled after the 2011 poll debacle.
Nothing could be more different from the days when Jyoti Basu was the leader of the Opposition in West Bengal before 1977. After he became Chief Minister, he organised two Opposition conclaves — of course before and after 1996 — when his qualities as statesman and capabilities as coalition leader were acknowledged by the collective that was eager to form an alternative United Front Government. With the launch of the year-long celebration of Basu's centenary by the CPI(M), it is perhaps the appropriate moment to consider what he believed was the party's destiny in India's politics. Basu clearly believed that the CPI(M) had a significant role to play in national politics. The ultimate objective of that role was very correctly Marxian, leading a people's struggle that would establish a people's democracy. But given his level-headed practical sensibilities, Jyoti Basu had limited the contribution of the CPI(M) to the realm of what was realistically possible.
The 2014 election presents an opportunity to the CPI(M) to break out of its isolation in Indian politics and rejoin the discourse, not as a failed and pitiable outsider, but as one of the original members of the fluid but constant alternative, variously described as Third Front, Fourth Front and now Federal Front. In order to do so, the CPI(M) has to make up its mind whether indeed the Congress and the BJP are as bad as each other and, therefore, equally untouchable. In the eventuality of a fractured verdict that throws up the possibility of the alternative as a coalition having to combine with the two big national parties — the Congress or the BJP — the CPI(M) must know what it will do.
For the CPI(M) to sit out, yet another term in Parliament, as an inconsequential party would be unfortunate. To be seen without ambition and without a few significant wooers in the run up to the election would be disastrous for it in West Bengal. If the CPI(M) is going to be part of no potential Government and if it is not going to play king-maker in some obvious way, then the voter may well consider it a poor choice in West Bengal in 2014. In a situation full of such intriguing possibilities, the CPI(M) does not have a leader like Jyoti Basu. He would have talked and met, spoken and campaigned and while doing so he would have kept his sights steadily fixed on where the party should arrive at the end of it all. What is more, Jyoti Basu would have had his arguments ready that would hold good as much in private negotiations with political leaders as it would be convincing to the public.