Negative nattering

Purging,reining,scrapping,stopping. Halting,plugging,curbing,checking. Reversing,preventing,prohibiting; repealing,protecting,and abrogating. These words,blazing,poetic,begin so many of the proposals in Part II,the to-do section of the CPMs recently released manifesto. Less a to-do list,then,than to-undo; the Left seems determined to cement its reputation for obdurate obstructiveness.

Indeed,those who disdain manifestos as any gauge of what parties actually intend or stand for,should first consider running through the CPMs manifesto: itd be instructive. Look at what it solicits: nothing so crass as votes for itself,but support for alternative policies; nothing so infra dig as a claim on the PM-ship,instead an insistence that it will work for the creation of a non-Congress,non-BJP government. The CPM has tried to write a set of things it could conceivably coalesce a Third Front around even if the last communist who could have claimed the PM-ship told the Party faithful massed in the worlds second-largest stadium that getting a Third Front government in would be difficult. And the Lefts primary opponent? Look at the numbers: the first 10 pages of the 13-page summary in Part I are devoted almost exclusively to an attack on the Congress and the UPA; the eleventh briefly dissects the BJP.

In some ways,the CPMs exercise is a sign of all that is good about the party,as well as what is bad. The manifesto is clearly a product of considerable internal discussion,and reflects a good proportion of the partys deeply held values: this helps voters make informed decisions. But whats bad is also on display: most notably,the vacuous anti-Americanism US military interventions are to be opposed,not all military interventions and the complete absence of any real,positive programme to tackle the economic crisis,as opposed to hopeless nostalgia for a Nehruvian past. This is most visible when one compares what they want rolled back laid out with specificity and detail with anything novel they suggest: the latter is vague and aspirational: ensure is a favourite word here,a word that means no concrete plan is required,merely a vision of utopia. But then,this is the Left were discussing. And,of course,that vagueness is precisely what is needed,if indeed a non-Congress and non-BJP government is to be created. Pinning a Third Front down to specific policy8230; well,that would take more than a manifesto.