Left politics - all sound and fury, signifying nothing

By Amulya Ganguli

The communists, who have never been a major force in Indian politics at the national level, may be harming their political prospects even further by pursuing a rather curious brand of politics.

In a nutshell, their present-day political formulations seem to be a mixture of self-defeating cussedness and inexplicable contradictions. For instance, on one hand, their opposition to the government's economic reforms sends out the message that the Left - as the communist parties are collectively known - is hampering the country's progress. It is a stance which is bound to have negative electoral repercussions.

On the other hand, what the communists are opposing at the centre on the grounds that these are anti-poor, neo-liberal policies dictated by the World Bank and the Intenational Monetary Fund are precisely the kind of policies which the Marxist state government of West Bengal is busily implementing.

A dramatic example of this contradiction is the vehement opposition put up by leftist leaders at the centre against privatization of the Delhi and Mumbai airports while the West Bengal government is preparing similar plans for the Kolkata airport.

The latter has also been appealing to foreign and domestic industrialists for investing in the state while the comrades in New Delhi are clearly unhappy about FDI (foreign direct investment). The same applies to disinvestment. While the West Bengal government is eager to sell off, or even close down, the loss-making public sector units (PSUs), the communists at the centre do not favour such moves.

At the most, they lay down all kinds of conditions before approving FDI or the sale or disinvestment of the PSUs. For instance, they say FDI can be allowed only if the investors bring new technology, increase productivity and generate employment. A critic described these terms as absurd, for who would endorse a move which brings in old technology, lowers productivity and curbs employment?

Similarly, the Delhi-based comrades say they will allow sale or disinvestment of loss-making PSUs only when all attempts to revive them by pouring in more funds have failed. As everyone knows, this old ploy of reviving terminally sick units has led to the wastage of millions of rupees.

The reason for these conflicting positions is that the Left is caught in a trap. Internally, the comrades in Delhi are unable to disengage themselves from their ideological commitment to Marxist tenets, which shun the private sector and regard a market-driven economy with disfavour.

But in states like West Bengal where the Left is in power, the communists have realised that the economy cannot thrive in the absence of the private industrialists. Moreover, the latter will not invest unless trade union militancy is curbed, something which the Delhi comrades, who have no direct administrative experience, cannot accept.

It is not only in West Bengal that such contradictions have come to the fore. In Kerala, too, where the Left is hoping to regain power, the comrades have dropped their objections to accepting loans from the Asian Development Bank and have approved of a plan for an express highway that they earlier opposed.

The difficulty with these flip-flops is that more and more sections of the electorate are becoming disenchanted with the Left. The upper classes never voted for the communists any way. Now, even the middle classes are moving away as they become more affluent because of the booming economy. The commissars are left, therefore, with only their trade union support base, which constitutes a mere eight per cent of the total work force.

The percentages of votes secured by the Left in the last general election show the limited nature of their influence. For instance, the CPI(M), the largest of the parties, received only 5.7 per cent of the national vote while the CPI got a mere 1.4 per cent. The Left Front, as a whole, secured 8.3 per cent, winning 61 Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) seats.

Although its support is essential for the survival of the Manmohan Singh government, the communists know that if they bring down the government, they will head towards an uncertain future, where their percentages and number of seats may fall even further.

Hence, their bark is usually worse than their bite. Their grumbles about airport privatisation, FDI in the retail sector and India's vote against Iran are seen as ritualistic gestures aimed at preserving their ideological purity - all sound and fury signifying nothing. They have decided to raise these issues in parliament but not call for a vote since that might endanger the government.

What the Left doesn't seem to realise, however, is that their rhetorical flourishes, or threats to forge a Third Front with the Samajwadi Party, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Nationalist Congress Party to pressurize the Manmohan Singh government, are being increasingly seen as mere verbiage, which can be ignored.

The government at least seems to have come to this conclusion, judging from its decisions to pay no heed to Left complaints as it went about taking steps like privatising airports and allowing internationally acclaimed brands to enter the retail sector.

If predictions about the eight per cent annual rate of growth in GDP come true, the Left will be in deeper trouble in case the perception spreads that it is halting India's progress. As long as India was recognisably poverty-stricken, developing at the snail-paced 'Hindu rate of growth' of between two and three per cent per year during the days of Nehruvian socialism, the Left could take the moral high ground by claiming to speak for the poor.

But at a time when India is being bracketed with China as one of the economic success stories of the 21st century, and the mood in the country is upbeat, the commissars, with their outdated theories, are evidently on a weak wicket.

(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at aganguli@mail.com)

-Indo-Asian News Service