12) INDIA'S COMMUNISTS ASSESS BENGAL DEFEAT

Special to PV

            A month after the communist-led Left Front government of West Bengal went down to defeat, the leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) met on June 12 in Hyderabad to review the results.

            The Left Front was first elected in 1977. These 34 years saw important gains for the peasants and workers in Bengal, including India's most comprehensive land reforms, a wide expansion of local democratic governance, and measures to improve living standards.

            But in recent years, the Left Front suffered setbacks at the local and central levels. A terror campaign by Maoists and right-wing forces killed hundreds of left activists. This campaign became a bitter struggle between the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress party led by Mamata Banerjee, who has also been the railways minister in the central government.

            Under the slogan of "change", the TMC won 184 seats to 62 for the Left Front parties. (The Indian National Congress took another 42 seats, and smaller parties won five.) The Left Front slipped to 41% of the total popular vote.

            Elections were also held in three other states, including Kerala, where a left alliance and right-wing parties have alternated in office for many years. This time, the left was narrowly defeated in Kerala.

            In its review, the CPI(M) Central Committee noted the "concerted effort to ensure a gang‑up of disparate political forces ranging from the extreme right to the Maoists to isolate and weaken the Left Front."

            Despite the achievements of Left Front governments, the CC said, "there were shortcomings and weaknesses in some of the policies and measures adopted for the welfare of the people. The mistakes with regard to Singur and Nandigram proved costly."

            This conclusion points to the efforts by the Left Front to strengthen the economy of West Bengal. Facing limits on gains from its progressive agricultural policies, the government decided to purchase areas of rural land to establish industrial projects. The strategy was to increase employment and to defeat the central government's attempt to isolate radical West Bengal by turning the state into an agricultural backwater.

            But a combination of mistakes cost the Left Front valuable support. Many peasants in the affected areas objected to the projects, and in one case, police killed a number of protesting villagers. The Left Front raised the proposed land purchase prices and took steps to crack down on police abuse, but the tragedy gave opposition forces a powerful rallying point.

            The Central Committee review also identified "organizational defects and shortcomings which have alienated various sections of the people" and launched "corrective steps to be taken at the political and organizational level."

            Despite its problems, the Left Front polled about 19.5 million votes, and the Bengal communists and their allies reject the idea that they have become "politically irrelevant." The CPI(M) statement pledges to "continue the struggle for the working class and the toiling people against neo‑liberal policies and to defend the historic gains achieved by the people."

            Since the election, violence has continued, killing another fourteen Left Front members and injuring hundreds more. Scores of Party and trade union offices have been attacked or captured, and many activists have been driven from their homes, but the new government has taken no steps to curb the attacks.

            A "long and arduous struggle" lies ahead, said CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat in a recent commentary.

            Karat gives a sharp response to what he calls "another form of attack", the attempt to slander the entire record of the Left Front and to claim that its earlier victories were due to the repression of anyone who opposed the CPI(M).

            "These critics conveniently forget that in every assembly election since 1977, the anti‑Left opposition has got less than 40% of the vote at any time," said Karat. "The CPI(M) and the Left Front had a remarkable record of winning between forty five to fifty per cent of the vote in all previous elections owing to their deep roots among the people and the popular support that they commanded particularly in the rural areas."

            It is not accidental, Karat noted, that the highest voter turnouts in India are in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura, states where communist-led land reforms "have broken the old landlord structure and expanded democracy... It is the agents of the dominant classes and vested interests who seek to tarnish and distort this democratic record of the Left."

            In West Bengal, Karat said, the CPI(M) will defend the gains achieved over the last three decades: "Given the class nature of the ruling alliance, there will be efforts to undo the land reforms and undermine the gains achieved by the working people. We will defend the land reforms and the rights of the bargadars (share-croppers) and agricultural workers; the workers will be better organised to fight for their rights and all sections of the working people in defence of their livelihood. The legacy of secularism and communal harmony has to be protected and the divisive forces out to disrupt the unity of the people and integrity of the state countered. All this will be accomplished by strengthening the Left unity."

(The above article is from the July 1-31, 2011, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)