THE COMMUNIST PREDICAMENT IN WEST BENGAL

THE COMMUNIST PREDICAMENT IN WEST BENGAL

The communists alone have the intellectual approach to electoral politics in West Bengal despite their opportunistic alliance with Islamists. Their demise from being a major player in it is on account of their loss of leadership and consequent hold on the public imagination which is why they now have to resort to such blatant display of Islamist communalism.

Demographic degeneration is giving rise to increased populism which is also why the communists with their intellectual approach are losing ground and fools masquerading as leaders are leading their political parties to resounding electoral success.

Ideology plays little role in a polity where film stars parade as politicians and are elected to Parliament to make a mockery of all that true politics stands for. Those that have mastered the art of cheap populism with catchy sloganeering bearing homely associations have left the communists behind and are now ruling the roost in West Bengal's political realm. Quite obvious it is to all that the communists with their disciplined code of ideological politics have failed in this regard of sinking to natural lows as their adversaries in West Bengal and have in accordance been relegated to the periphery of politics here so much so that they need Islamists to support them now in an open show of universal brotherhood that transcends ideological barriers. And why will they not? After all they entered democratic politics owing allegiance to the Constitution of India with the stated intent of ripping it up from within (ref. E.M.S Namboodiripad). So, their ideological adherence is limited by the demands of realpolitik and they can go to any length to achieve their 'revolutionary' ends. And in this case of impending drowning in a sea of communal politics what more can they do than to catch hold of a straw in the form of an alien outfit at source quite like themselves to keep floating in a sea of turbulence as long as possible?

But the rank and file of the communist parties have at least a semblance of intellectuality in them which distinguishes them from their political adversaries of rudimentary roguishness and cacophonous congregation. Even on their deathbed the communists maintain some sort of intellectual dignity in debate and follow some sort of disciplined line of political thinking that sets them apart from among the crowd of imbeciles that sully political discourse today with unintelligible cacophony or plain foolish fabrications of data and exhibitions of denseness.

The international demise of communism and the inertia of the Indian communists in regard to altering stance in resonant vibration with the Communist Party of China and, consequently, aligning themselves on an altered political footing with global capitalism as the Chinese have done, have left them low in their home turf where the ball has slipped from their grip and passed on to the opposition. This and their continued intransigence in adjusting to global political realities and their dogmatic adherence to outdated ideological principles have made them recent relics of the political history of West Bengal. Unless they can resurrect themselves along populist lines in a big way now -- and what a shame that culture has so plummeted in West Bengal that such an exigency should arise to stay politically relevant, in the absence of strong moral character, that is, -- the communists in West Bengal will remain the last lingering flicker of a flame that was once a conflagration that had lit up the state for good or for evil. The dying embers are holding their last conversations with life before darkness shrouds Bengali communism for good.

Written by

Sugata Bose

Photo : left - Satyajit Ray ; centre - Jyoti Basu ; right - Mrinal Sen.