By Anjan Roy
The CPI(M) in Bengal has managed to stage a picture of resurgence after a long gap.. The CPI(M)’s youth wing, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) managed to hold a fairly well-attended public meeting in the iconic Brigade Parade ground in Kolkata on Sunday. The public meeting of the Left this time presented a notable break from the past practices. For the perceptive observers, it was the rally of a nationalist party, not that of a hardcore Marxist party as the CPI(M) has been known since its formation in 1964.
If nothing, the youth meeting has enthused the left in Bengal before the Lok Sabha polls. Since 2011, the Trinamool Congress, under the political leadership of Mamata Banerjee, the party supremo, had effectively obliterated the Left and Congress in the state.
It is however none too clear how far the gathering is a precursor of some rise in voting for the left. Even earlier, the CPI(M) held massive gatherings in the Brigade ground but the voting results did not reflect it..
Currently, the Left does not have a single elected representative in the state assembly. There is no one in Lok Sabha too. Just imagine, in 2004 Lok Sabha elections, the CPI(M) got 34 seats from Bengal alone and that gave the CPI(M) central leadership enough bargaining power to put pressure on the UPA government led by Dr. Manmohan Singh from outside. The CPI(M) has three members in Lok Sabha now, two from Tamil Nadu on the basis of DMK support and one from Kerala on the basis of its own strength.
In the last twelve years since the CPI(M) was ousted from the state government in Bengal, the party’s fortunes dipped more and more despite alliance with the Congress. In the recent by election to Dhupguri assembly constituency in the state, the Trinamool Congress defeated the sitting BJP candidate while the CPI(M) candidate supported by the Congress got only 5 per cent of the votes.
In such a scenario, the CPI(M) youth wing organized the INSAF yatra and after covering large part of the state, the yatra organized the final rally on January 7 in Brigade Parade ground under the leadership of a young 39 year old Meenakshi Mukherjee.
For the first time in a Communist Party of India (Marxist) meeting, the public dais had a tricolour flying proudly in a corner. Until now, the CPI(M) had steadfastly refused to recognise the national flag as part of its proceedings. Only the CPI(M) party red flag, showing the hammer and sickle, used to be seen fluttering.
The CPI(M) cadres this time were swearing by the Constitution of India. It has never happened with the Communists. The meeting began invoking Bengali nationalism and ended by a read-out from the Constitution of India’s Preamble. It was a out and out a statement of Indian nationalism in contrast to the internationalism of the earlier years of such CPI(M) meetings..
Then, the meeting began with a song from Rabindranath Tagore, in sharp contrast to the “Communist International” which was used to be sung as a matter of faith. Instead of that, the CPI(M) and DYFI delegates sang a Tagore song written over a century ago in protest against the division of Bengal in 1905.
What a contrast and transition from the Communists’ earlier stance?: Incidentally, this song has been adopted by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the state’s official song and the Bengal legislature has stipulated compulsory singing of the song in state government’s functions.
The dais in the Sunday meeting could not have been more removed from traditional Communists’ public meetings. Until now, no Communists’ meeting had projected a single person and that image as part of the core message.
Not this time. A young face, Meenakshi Mukherjee, has been the fulcrum around whom the entire proceedings whirled. Her face was preeminent, she conducted the meeting and she was christened as the “Captain” of the whole process of so called revitalization.
In contrast to the past, not one of the post-60 leaders were on the dais. They were sitting out in the front row of the public meeting, not on the dais. Only one exception was made. Senior citizen and CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Salim, was on the dais but only in his capacity as former general secretary of DYFI decades ago. .
This new approach of the Bengal CPI(M) will naturally lead to debate in the party. It is a fact that the CPI(M) leadership has understood that the Bengal masses are fed up with the jaded CPI(M) leaders and the use of same slogans in the campaigning which does not appeal any more. The Trinamool Congress government and the leaders at panchayat levels have been accused of corruption, but still the TMC candidates are winning at every level in elections.. The common masses are with them The CPI(M) has never tried to analyse the reasons for the continued support of the common people to the TMC.
The CPI(M) has to make a proper assessment of the Mamata phenomenon and on that basis, formulate its strategy. Mamata has hijacked the Left’s pro- people agenda, the entire cultural world which was in sole control of the Left earlier, has gone over to Mamata.. CPI(M) has no fresh narrative which can enthuse the new generation of Bengalis and other residents of the state. Along with the youthisation of the party which is certainly welcome, the CPI(M) has to find its distinctive Bengal specific political agenda. The Party led by the youth has to be prepared for a long haul- not 2024 Lok Sabha elections, not even 2026 assembly polls but 2031. (IPA Service)
