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Journalism of Courage
Shimlas new mayor and his deputy may even show the CPM a new way
Comrades Sanjay Chauhan and Tikender Singh Panwar now mayor and deputy mayor of Shimla made history by ending the Congress monopoly over the citys municipal corporation. They won in a direct election,a first for the city. The CPM may be tempted to believe that a new red dawn has come to Shimla. A closer look will tell it,however,that the candidates had a formula for success,quite separate from their partys.
Chauhan and Panwar,like many other Left leaders,were activists. But what is distinctive about them is that both kept their politics rooted in the local context instead of vaulting over it in pursuit of more reified frameworks and spectres,as their party often does. Chauhan,for instance,led a movement to expose corruption within the municipal corporation,specifically in sanitation schemes. Panwar campaigned against the BJP government in the state. Both harnessed popular anger over the possible appropriation of the Annadale ground and other patches of green by a land mafia.
Perhaps the CPM leadership can draw inspiration from the small success in Shimla. The Indian Left has been so preoccupied with rescuing the global proletariat from the excesses of the bourgeoisie that it ignores the local working classes whose support it needs to bring about the revolution,whenever that may be. Heres an idea: might the CPM discover greater electoral success if it took a page out of Chauhan and Panwars book and diverted its attention from,say,George W. Bush and the horrors of the neoliberal agenda,to spare a thought for issues that resonate with the people?
