The Trinamool-Congress combine's aim of displacing the Left Front government to end the so-called “Red misrule,” is actually meant to bring about a counter transformation: a ‘pariborton' (change), which would lead to establishing the rule of the dominant classes and vested interests in the rural areas and under the cover of petit bourgeois radical demagogy, a free run for neo-liberal policies.
This has been stated by Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat, in an article ‘33 years of Left Front government: defend the gains of the working people,' which is to be published in the latest issue of the weekly party organ, People's Democracy . The Left Front in West Bengal completes 33 years of governance on June 21.
He said the anti-Communist combine seeks to usher in a narrow form of identity politics, which seeks to fan ethnic, religious and caste identities. “Such politics is resorted to, to erode the solidarity of the working people and will have its regressive efforts on society,” Mr. Karat said.
Noting that for the ruling classes and imperialism, the continued existence of a Left Front government was disagreeable, Mr. Karat said “the weakening of the CPI(M) and the Left required the isolation of the Left Front government.”
Describing the Left Front government's completion of 33 years as a landmark, the article said no other State government led by other political parties, had such a record both in terms of longevity and in the implementation of policies which had benefited the people. “This unique record is sought to be overshadowed by the electoral reverses suffered by the CPI(M) and the Left Front in the past one year from the Lok Sabha elections up to the 81 municipal corporation polls,” Mr. Karat said.
This situation was being utilised to negate all the achievements of the Left Front government. A ‘vitriolic' propaganda was on to depict West Bengal as a State which has suffocated under “Red rule.” Mr. Karat said that none should be surprised that such propaganda was being made by the ruling classes and the corporate media. “This is because the entire record of the Left Front government has been to push through policies which have not been in the interests of the bourgeois-landlord classes of our country,” he said.
Land reforms
The article said that no other State had implemented land reforms as West Bengal had. One-fifth of the total land distributed as surplus in India, had been in West Bengal. No other State had ensured that agricultural development benefited the peasantry and not a narrow strata of landlords and rich peasants. The institutionalisation of the panchayat system opened up the way for the rural toiling masses to have a say in their local affairs.
The prolonged rule of the Left Front had created a stable secular atmosphere. The exercise of democratic rights by various sections of the working people was an inherited feature of the political system. There was no doubt that three decades of the Left Front government had transformed West Bengal for the better.
Attacks on cadres
The article said the post-Lok Sabha election period had seen attacks on the CPI(M) cadres with more than 245 killed in the past one year. Thousands had become homeless amid evictions of peasants and bargadars and cases of arson. Such attacks revealed the true nature of the political forces ranged against the Left Front. It portends a class-attack which would take place not only against the CPI(M) and the Left but also against the common people and the gains that they had achieved.
Pointing out that the recent electoral results could not be attributed to the functioning of the Left Front government alone, Mr. Karat admitted that the results showed that some sections of the people had been alienated. He said that in the last year of its present tenure, the Left Front government would do everything possible to implement pro-people measures.
Contrary to what is being depicted, the mass base of the CPI(M) and the Left was substantial and widespread. The forces ranged against the Left Front were not going to be united permanently and the situation can be turned around. “The Left Front government is a product of the prolonged struggles of the working people of West Bengal. Defending the Left Front government means defending the gains and rights of the working people,” Mr. Karat said.
