Once the creators of 'scientific rigging'; the Leftists score of zero in West Bengal is guided by a simple lesson of natural justice and politics -- as you sow shall you reap.
Many Left candidates forfeited their deposits. They scored zero in Lok Sabha polls too. The CPI-M had contested in 136 of the total 294 seats. RSP, CPI and the Forward Bloc fought in 11, 10 and 22 seats, respectively. Net results - cipher.
The Marxists, self-styled conscience keepers of Indian politics, scored zero in West Bengal. It could have sounded like a fictional line even 10-15 years back!! But why? No, like the Congress there would not be genuine self introspection.
“The performance of the Sanjukta Morcha and the Left has been very disappointing. People’s urge to defeat the BJP led to a sharp polarisation squeezing out the Sanjukta Morcha. A self-critical review of these results will be undertaken by the party to draw needed lessons,” - a feeble statement by the CPI-M politburo said. The communists actually lost the ideological opposition space to Mamata Banerjee when in 2016, Sitaram Yechury had agreed to tale talks with Mamata to prepared joint strategy against demonetisation.
In Tripura, Trinamool paid the price for this hara-kiri when all their legisltors joined BJP. Now it was Leftists' turn. I could smell the change in 2019. Left leaders in Purulia and Durgapur during Lok Sabha polls said - we know people will vote against Trinamool, our chief concern is whom will they vote - the Left or the BJP.
Here again in 2019, voters chose BJP and now they shifted allegiance to the Didi camp.
Left is Left in the lurch !!
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| By George !! |
It was a case of opposing - for the sake of hating Narendra Modi. In issue-based argument and political economy; noteban is said to be a pro-communism doctrine. But Indian Left has always decided things otherwise.
When logic fails, either you have communists - the beloved baam panthis - or parties like Shiv Sena !
Illustrious socialist George Fernandes once said, "I was always pro-Left in thinking. Indian communists have made me change my opinion. Left can always see that you are left in the lurch". So goes their legacy and story !
Since 2014, the communists had learnt to belittle people's mandate and mocked at BJP's emergence as the single largest party. What is the vote share, they question. Well, their overall vote share nosedived to 7 per cent. The Left Front had won 32 seats in 2016.
Their preface to the story of political humiliation was : "It can be primarily said the reason behind this outcome is people’s desperation to defeat the BJP. The Morcha will discuss within itself, and the member parties will discuss amongst themselves, the reason behind this defeat and learn from it..."
The big worry is political moral teachers do not learn any lesson themselves ! Instead they can teach others. Rahul Gandhi's ultra-Left approach had dragged Congress even to raise 'tukde tukde slogans'.
Meenakshi Mukherjee could not even save her deposit in Nandigram. She got 6267 votes, just 2.47 percent of the valid votes polled. JNU Students Union president Aishe Ghosh, one of those protagonists who rejoiced in embarrassing Modi regime just for the sake of it stood a distant third in Jamuria constituency.
The Left Front gamble of fielding 70 percent of candidates in the age bracket of 25-50, did not help either.
The CPI-M got just 4.68 percent of the votes whereas CPI got 0.2 percent and CPI(ML) got 0.03 percent.
Congress marginilisation is a story in itself:
The bigger marginalisation of Congress shows the voters in West Bengal like in Delhi in Feb 2020, and especially Muslims, knew when they have to beat BJP, they ought not vote for Congress but opt for regional players like the Trinamool Congress and the AAP.
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| Narasimha Rao and Kanshi Ram: Can Congress brave through its Crisis |
Perhaps Congress needs the maturity of a P V Narasimha Rao. The first social engineering came during his time; gradually Congress was reviving.
Didi's temple run was not without good reason; and so she screamed I belong to Shandilya Gotra!
In Delhi, AAP leaders like Saurabh Bharadwaj (in Greater Kailash) did the same and not miss opportunity to display Tilak on his forehead or never hesitated to display his Brahmin identity card. These deprived BJP the 'sole claim' over the issue of faith and religion of majority voters.
Yes, the same old debate: Will soft Hindutva or rather symbolic Hindutva along with the freebies are only trump cards to fight Moditva phenomenon.
The Congress too has tried these political ploys, Rahul Gandhi has visited temples and even called himself a Shiv Bhakt. These may get benefits at times; but often these fail as well.
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| Campaign trail: A Sadhu and his glass of water |
Iconic Rabindranath Tagore sang in a different context, "Bangali korechho, Manush koro nai (You have made me a Bengali, but I need to become a human being)
Setbacks in state elections for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP have not come for the first time.
In 2015, BJP lost two crucial elections in Bihar and Delhi. In 2020 within months of landslide win in parliamentary elections of 2019, the BJP lost yet again against Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi.
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| 2015: After Delhi rout |
In 2018, BJP lost polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maoists-infested Chhattisgarh. Nevertheless these did not dampen Modi's electoral politics and perhaps even popularity.
But this time around Mamata is unlike the run of the mill politician. In Bengal, she has a history of fighting the communists in a long drawn for two decades and she had ousted them successfully in 2011.
Gimmicks often help her. Even in 2021, she thrust herself in a wheelchair. She knew the going was tough.
Moreover, there is the second wave of the pandemic and here Narendra Modi's credibility as an administrator has already come under question. Thus, Mamata will probably have a chance if other opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi give up their ego and accept 'her leadership' at the national level to take on Modi.
Importantly, she also has to perform as Mamata's image of an administrator is essentially defined by the culture of welfarism with no consideration of economy and allegedly a blatant 'pro-Muslim' image.
If she has to make deeper penetration in national politics, she ought to be more sensitive to the pro-Hindu sentiments. Probably, she is aware of this and thus she visited a popular temple in Kolkata as a thanks giving gesture to Goddess Kali.
But important takeaways also are:
# One should cry at Bengal's irony....from Basuism and Left, the state went onto Mamata's lap and all misgovernance continues....
# People prefer Rs 2 kg rice and there will be 'Brain Drain'. Joblessness will multiply and political dadagiri to pursue
# Just hating Modi is a small matter. Mamata funded 'clubs' just few months back, and she may continue to do that. These Clubs are Left legacy and here Goondaism is legitimised and even cops shiver !!
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