Editorial: Loneliness of being a comrade

The problem with communist parties has been their dogmatic refusal to shed ideological rigidity, embrace change, and groom new regional leaders

The Left has left the political map of India. For the first time in decades, communist parties are not in power in any State. With the defeat of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala in the recent round of Assembly elections, the decimation of the Left parties is complete. The southern State was the last post to fall, after the electoral losses in the erstwhile stronghold States of West Bengal and Tripura. The decline has not been dramatic or sudden. Signs of decay had been evident for years, but the ideological rigidity of party apparatchiks prevented meaningful internal reform. Once a formidable force that shaped the country’s economic direction, particularly in the decades following Independence, the Left ideology had influenced every sphere of activity, including public policies and academia. Largely a preserve of public intellectuals, the communist ideology was synonymous with progressive thinking and identified with the cause of the poor and working classes. Not long ago, the Left parties were the kingmakers in Indian politics. With 60 seats in Parliament, they provided crucial outside support to the UPA government. In fact, they took credit for formulating key welfare policies such as MGNREGA and ultimately withdrew support over India’s nuclear deal with the United States. However, there has been a steady erosion of their support base since then. The aspirational generation of the post-liberalisation era has clearly moved away from the anachronistic ideology of communist parties.

A massive fall came in 2011 when the Left was voted out of power in West Bengal, ending a record 34-year reign. Then, in 2018, Tripura, their second stronghold, too collapsed. Now, one wonders whether the sun has finally set on Indian Communism. A clear disconnect with the aspirational middle-class, continued peddling of the worn-out Cold War era narrative fuelled solely by anti-Americanism, failure to recognise the role of the private enterprise in wealth creation and distribution, visceral hatred for the corporate world and blind opposition to the adoption of new technologies and big ticket projects are some of the factors responsible for the Left parties losing relevance over the years. The comrades need to reinvent themselves in tune with the changing times to stay relevant. The Left’s decline has coincided with the rise of the BJP, which has been expanding its footprint across the country. The problem with communist parties has been their dogmatic refusal to shed ideological rigidity, embrace change in tune with the changing times and find new regional heroes to champion contemporary causes. As four-time Congress MP Shashi Tharoor eloquently puts it, “The Indian Left has struggled to find a new vocabulary for a ‘New India’. To a young coder in Gurgaon or a delivery driver in Kolkata, rhetoric opposing liberalisation or capitalism can sound less like protection from exploitation and more like a barrier to opportunity.”

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