Marxist monopoly

Buddhadev Bhattacharya might be making serious efforts to change from being a stodgy Marxist to a bhadralok, at least since he took over t...

Buddhadev Bhattacharya might be making serious efforts to change from being a stodgy Marxist to a bhadralok, at least since he took over the baton from comrade Jyoti Basu as the chief minister of West Bengal. But if the recent spate of violence in Midnapore is anything to go by, the CPM cadresseem to be turning from bad to worse. According to reports over 100 Trinamool supporters, including their leader Mamata Banerjee, were injured recently, some of them seriously. Apparently, the truckloads of Trinamool supporters who were making a beeline for Keshpur 8212; a Trinamool stronghold which the CPM had quot;capturedquot; in the last two months 8212; were attacked with bombs. After the Trinamool partymen returned home, many of them were fired upon in the darkness of the night in the neighbouring districts of Bankura, Burdwan and Hoogly. The Keshpur violence is not an isolated incident. Widespread violence has been perpetrated by the Marxists in the Bengal countryside ever since the CPM lost the crucial Panskura bypoll last year and failed to retain control over the prestigious Calcutta corporation.

While CPM cadres have gone berserk in rural areas, paranoid party leaders, jittery about losing their stronghold 8212; which they had held for the last 24 years 8212; have justified the violence on the ground. The situation in West Bengal today is comparable to that of the sixties and the seventies, when the CPM was trying to penetrate the state8217;s countryside. Political conflict had turned extremely violent. In the first phase during the mid-sixties, the party faced both the violence of Congress louts and the frequent imposition of the President8217;s rule by Indira Gandhi. In the second phase, during the late seventies, the CPM, having learnt the lessons of power from the Congress, unleashed state violence at the various Naxalite groups and a Congress party in Opposition.

Since 1977, the CPM has enjoyed an untrammelled monopoly in the state. In the initial years the party brought about some radical structural changes such as tenancy reforms, land to a section of the landless, institutionalisation of Panchayati Raj, and enhanced agricultural growth rates. But, as the maxim goes, absolute power did corrupt the CPM absolutely. The ledger folio scandal that rocked the state ran into thousands of crores. Subsequent years witnessed a de-radicalisation of the party. Land reforms made good politics as long as the rich landowners were being attacked, but it began becoming unpopular when family farms began getting targetted. There has hardly been any registration of new land pattas in West Bengal since 1992. The new economics of liberalisation also caught the CPM on the wrong foot. As long as the challenge was from the Congress, the CPM had the moral highground. But soon a firebrand Mamata led the charge, through her street fights and mahajots. The largely ossified, geriatricMarxist leadership have clearly run out of new ideas. They simply do not know how to face the latest challenge. If they continue using the political language of the sixties and the seventies by hurling bombs and brickbats, the assembly elections in May may well turn out to be a bloodbath 8212; which has the potentials of turning the tide in the state.