02-10-2008, 09:26 AM
<b>Divisions in Left </b>
By S. Viswam
Many politicians in the capital, irked beyond measure by the arrogance and snobbery of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its secretary-general Mr Prakash Karat, and its holier-than-thou attitude towards other parties, have been hoping, even praying, that the party be brought down a peg or two from its "lofty pedestal".
Their prayers appear to have been answered. They can now draw vicarious pleasure from the acute embarrassment visiting on the CPI(M) following the surfacing of cracks within the ruling Left Front coalition in West Bengal. For the first time in three decades Left unity is unravelling and the Front partners are pulling in different directions. The malaise of disunity and incohesion has hit all the three states simultaneously and the claim of the Left parties that it is the glue of ideological affinity that keeps them together has been exposed to be a myth.
<b>Ideology has played no part in the current split-up of the Left which has resulted solely from ego and personality clashes induced by the CPI(M)âs arrogance.</b>
The CPI(M) is the dominant partner in the Left Front in all the three states, West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, where the Left parties have held sway for some years. Though the Front comprises the CPI, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc, it is the CPI(M) that has been acting as the principal spokesman of the Left consolidation.
<b>In that role, the CPI(M) has not shied away from being extremely critical of everything that does not conform to standards set by it or to the Left ideology. It has been openly intolerant of most other parties and their respective ideologies. </b>
Even where its own interests demanded co-operation with other political formations, as with the so-called Third Front parties in recent weeks, the CPI(M) has been both patronising and condescending.
The CPI(M)âs arrogance and its holier-than-thou postures have become a given after the Left parties took a strong position against the Dr Manmohan Singh governmentâs proposed nuclear deal with the US. <b>There are more opponents than supporters of the deal within Parliament and the ranks of the political class, but the CPI(M) has managed to project itself as the sole "principled and patriotic" opponent of the deal and to dub the supporters as American stooges</b>. This attitude has not gone down well with a large section of the political class that feels that the Left is exploiting the nuclear deal to win votes for itself in elections.
Part of the anti-Left resentment in other parties is also intimately linked to the threat of a mid-term Lok Sabha poll that loomed large a few months ago following the CPI(M)âs warning of withdrawal of support from the UPA were the government to persist with the deal. Most politicians are not ready for snap polls, and the thought that the government can be brought down by the Left is galling to them. During the last debate in the Lok Sabha on the nuclear deal, the Leftâs stand was derided by some MPs supporting the deal as reflecting "power without responsibility".
What is relevant here is not the rights or wrongs of the nuclear deal but the kind of reactions the Left has provoked among other parties. Bigger and important regional outfits like the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of Karunanidhi (all UPA constituents) have also been considerably peeved by the fact that the Left parties are able to exert more influence on the UPA and its policies than the allianceâs partners. Their peeve is all the more intense since the Leftâs influence is confined to just three states but its hold over the Centre is disproportionate to its real political strength. The main opposition party, the BJP, has made no secret of its belief that the Left virtually runs the government and influences, even determines, all its economic policies. A touch of envy runs through the BJPâs anti-Left statements.
Those who felt that the Left had indeed grown too big for its boots because of its capacity to keep the UPA in check and dictate terms to the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi will see in the CPI(M)âs current predicament some cause for satisfaction.
Three of the four erstwhile Left Front partners are now estranged from the CPI(M) and have traded charges with it. The CPI has accused the CPI(M) of "Big Brother" behaviour while the AIFB and RSP are threatening to part political company from the CPI(M). In the process they have raised a question mark over the Left Frontâs future.
The first signs of fissures in the Left consolidation appeared in Kerala when differences between Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achutanandan, and the CPI(M) party chief, Mr Pinarayi Vijayan, became the talk of the town. The two senior leaders vied with each other in name-calling. The rift dissipated all the goodwill the Left had earned by sweeping the last Assembly polls and forming a Left Front government. The CPI(M) politburo had to intervene and discipline the two "warriors", a rare instance in the rigidly-run party that does not tolerate the airing of personal views in public.
The Kerala development embarrassed the central leadership but the party made a virtue of the event by publicising the view that unlike in other parties, indiscipline received zero tolerance in the CPI(M). The party was thus able to ride over the embarrassment, but the suspension of the Chief Minister and Mr Vijayan from the politburo made no difference at all. The two Kerala CPI(M) stalwarts have yet to mend their ways and the central leadership is powerless to impose unity from above.
Nandigram was the immediate provocation for the alienation of the CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc from the CPI(M) in West Bengal. Short of pulling out from the Front, each of the three disgruntled partners made no secret of its annoyance with the CPI(M) leadership for taking the Front constituents for granted. Although the top CPI(M) leaders like Mr Jyoti Basu, the Chief Minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Left Front chairman Biman Bose, managed to paper over the differences, the Left Front lost its shine. The patch-up was only skin-deep. This was confirmed by the Forward Blocâs call for a Bandh on Wednesday in protest against the police firing at Dinhata in Cooch Behar district in which five FB activists were killed. The impressive success of the Bandh confirmed that the FB, as the second largest party in the Front, can call some if not all the shots against the CPI(M) in West Bengal. The bandhâs success must also have been an eye-opener for the CPI(M). It was typical of the CPI(M) to attribute the bandhâs success to the efforts of "reactionary forces" like the Congress and the Trinamul Congress to embarrass the government! The impact of the Frontâs crack-up in West Bengal was felt immediately in Tripura where both the RSP and the Forward Bloc announced that they intend contesting the coming Assembly polls on their own and not in alliance with the CPI(M).
The CPI(M) may manage to tide over the latest crisis also and manufacture another patch-up of partners. However, the crisis of confidence that has been on public display in the three Communist-controlled states of late may well spell the beginning of the end of the Front.
By S. Viswam
Many politicians in the capital, irked beyond measure by the arrogance and snobbery of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and its secretary-general Mr Prakash Karat, and its holier-than-thou attitude towards other parties, have been hoping, even praying, that the party be brought down a peg or two from its "lofty pedestal".
Their prayers appear to have been answered. They can now draw vicarious pleasure from the acute embarrassment visiting on the CPI(M) following the surfacing of cracks within the ruling Left Front coalition in West Bengal. For the first time in three decades Left unity is unravelling and the Front partners are pulling in different directions. The malaise of disunity and incohesion has hit all the three states simultaneously and the claim of the Left parties that it is the glue of ideological affinity that keeps them together has been exposed to be a myth.
<b>Ideology has played no part in the current split-up of the Left which has resulted solely from ego and personality clashes induced by the CPI(M)âs arrogance.</b>
The CPI(M) is the dominant partner in the Left Front in all the three states, West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, where the Left parties have held sway for some years. Though the Front comprises the CPI, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc, it is the CPI(M) that has been acting as the principal spokesman of the Left consolidation.
<b>In that role, the CPI(M) has not shied away from being extremely critical of everything that does not conform to standards set by it or to the Left ideology. It has been openly intolerant of most other parties and their respective ideologies. </b>
Even where its own interests demanded co-operation with other political formations, as with the so-called Third Front parties in recent weeks, the CPI(M) has been both patronising and condescending.
The CPI(M)âs arrogance and its holier-than-thou postures have become a given after the Left parties took a strong position against the Dr Manmohan Singh governmentâs proposed nuclear deal with the US. <b>There are more opponents than supporters of the deal within Parliament and the ranks of the political class, but the CPI(M) has managed to project itself as the sole "principled and patriotic" opponent of the deal and to dub the supporters as American stooges</b>. This attitude has not gone down well with a large section of the political class that feels that the Left is exploiting the nuclear deal to win votes for itself in elections.
Part of the anti-Left resentment in other parties is also intimately linked to the threat of a mid-term Lok Sabha poll that loomed large a few months ago following the CPI(M)âs warning of withdrawal of support from the UPA were the government to persist with the deal. Most politicians are not ready for snap polls, and the thought that the government can be brought down by the Left is galling to them. During the last debate in the Lok Sabha on the nuclear deal, the Leftâs stand was derided by some MPs supporting the deal as reflecting "power without responsibility".
What is relevant here is not the rights or wrongs of the nuclear deal but the kind of reactions the Left has provoked among other parties. Bigger and important regional outfits like the Nationalist Congress Party of Sharad Pawar, the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Lalu Prasad, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam of Karunanidhi (all UPA constituents) have also been considerably peeved by the fact that the Left parties are able to exert more influence on the UPA and its policies than the allianceâs partners. Their peeve is all the more intense since the Leftâs influence is confined to just three states but its hold over the Centre is disproportionate to its real political strength. The main opposition party, the BJP, has made no secret of its belief that the Left virtually runs the government and influences, even determines, all its economic policies. A touch of envy runs through the BJPâs anti-Left statements.
Those who felt that the Left had indeed grown too big for its boots because of its capacity to keep the UPA in check and dictate terms to the Prime Minister and Congress president Sonia Gandhi will see in the CPI(M)âs current predicament some cause for satisfaction.
Three of the four erstwhile Left Front partners are now estranged from the CPI(M) and have traded charges with it. The CPI has accused the CPI(M) of "Big Brother" behaviour while the AIFB and RSP are threatening to part political company from the CPI(M). In the process they have raised a question mark over the Left Frontâs future.
The first signs of fissures in the Left consolidation appeared in Kerala when differences between Chief Minister, Mr V.S. Achutanandan, and the CPI(M) party chief, Mr Pinarayi Vijayan, became the talk of the town. The two senior leaders vied with each other in name-calling. The rift dissipated all the goodwill the Left had earned by sweeping the last Assembly polls and forming a Left Front government. The CPI(M) politburo had to intervene and discipline the two "warriors", a rare instance in the rigidly-run party that does not tolerate the airing of personal views in public.
The Kerala development embarrassed the central leadership but the party made a virtue of the event by publicising the view that unlike in other parties, indiscipline received zero tolerance in the CPI(M). The party was thus able to ride over the embarrassment, but the suspension of the Chief Minister and Mr Vijayan from the politburo made no difference at all. The two Kerala CPI(M) stalwarts have yet to mend their ways and the central leadership is powerless to impose unity from above.
Nandigram was the immediate provocation for the alienation of the CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc from the CPI(M) in West Bengal. Short of pulling out from the Front, each of the three disgruntled partners made no secret of its annoyance with the CPI(M) leadership for taking the Front constituents for granted. Although the top CPI(M) leaders like Mr Jyoti Basu, the Chief Minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Left Front chairman Biman Bose, managed to paper over the differences, the Left Front lost its shine. The patch-up was only skin-deep. This was confirmed by the Forward Blocâs call for a Bandh on Wednesday in protest against the police firing at Dinhata in Cooch Behar district in which five FB activists were killed. The impressive success of the Bandh confirmed that the FB, as the second largest party in the Front, can call some if not all the shots against the CPI(M) in West Bengal. The bandhâs success must also have been an eye-opener for the CPI(M). It was typical of the CPI(M) to attribute the bandhâs success to the efforts of "reactionary forces" like the Congress and the Trinamul Congress to embarrass the government! The impact of the Frontâs crack-up in West Bengal was felt immediately in Tripura where both the RSP and the Forward Bloc announced that they intend contesting the coming Assembly polls on their own and not in alliance with the CPI(M).
The CPI(M) may manage to tide over the latest crisis also and manufacture another patch-up of partners. However, the crisis of confidence that has been on public display in the three Communist-controlled states of late may well spell the beginning of the end of the Front.