Opinion Seeing Red
With CPM workers and offices coming under attack in West Bengal,the lead editorial in the latest issue of party mouthpiece Peoples Democracy....
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With CPM workers and offices coming under attack in West Bengal,the lead editorial in the latest issue of party mouthpiece Peoples Democracy says the murderous assaults mounted by the Trinamool Congress post-elections would be met with and defeated. During the decade of the 1970s,the CPM had faced and defeated the semi-fascist terror unleashed by the Congress and other reactionary forces. Thousands of our comrades had been martyred in the struggle and many more thousands were dislocated from their homes. Similarly,if the TMC and other reactionary forces wish to once again subvert democracy in West Bengal and to disrupt the peace and stability that Bengal has enjoyed for over three decades,by mounting murderous assaults on the CPM and the Left,this shall be met like the semi-fascist terror was met and defeated, the editorial says. It claims that the clearest expression of the Trinamools anti-democratic character is exposed in the murderous assaults that it has unleashed on the CPM and the Left. During the period from the announcement of the 15th general elections till today,40 CPM and 2 Forward Bloc activists have been murdered so far…Clearly,they were seeking to provoke a confrontation and to try and use the consequent developments to demand the intervention of the central government on the excuse of a break down of law and order in the state…The TMC chief has already demanded that the central government should act against the state government under Article 355 of our Constitution. This is a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. First mount murderous assaults and then raise the bogey of a law and order breakdown and seek central intervention this is the politics of the TMC, it says.
Beating up on BSP
The BSP was till a few days back a close friend of the CPM and a key player in its Third Front dream. But the situation has changed after the elections. Analysing the Lok Sabha election results in Uttar Pradesh,the CPMs central committee member and its UP state secretary S.P. Kashyap says the two-year rule of the BSP has created discontent among the voters and there was a lot of resentment against several of the anti-people policies being pursued by the Mayawati government. The people also abhorred the wastage of public money on a number of statues and memorials being built up in the state,while the government has little care for the issues facing the people. Nor did the people like the way Mayawati projected herself as a candidate for the prime ministers position, he says. Further,she put up a number of criminals and mafia-men as candidates for the Lok Sabha,and this the people thoroughly detested. Her formula of social engineering and Sarvajan Samaj in place of Bahujan Samaj was able to attract the upper castes in 2007,but failed to do so this time, he analyses. On the performance of the Congress,he says the substantial increase in its vote share does indicate that it has not only increased its seat tally but also expanded its mass base. A characteristic of this expanded mass base is that it is not confined to a particular caste,religious group or section; people of all sections have given it more support in comparison to 2004. For example,it received support from a big chunk of the minority voters who moved away from the SP.. Similarly,a good part of the upper caste voters mobilised behind the Congress party. From among the backward castes,it received sizeable support from the Kurmi and Koiri voters in the central parts of the state. Moreover,the Congress was able to penetrate among the Dalit voters who have so far been solidly behind the BSP. The question to deeply ponder over is: How was the party able to attract various sections of society? In a cursory manner,one may say that some of the UPA governments steps like the rural employment guarantee scheme and loan waiver benefited the Congress party to an extent. Then,there was also the belief that only the Congress-led UPA could provide a stable government at the centre. Its candidate selection was also much better than in the past,and it also benefited the trend of upper castes and minorities deserting the two main parties in the state,the SP and the BSP, he concludes.
Compiled by Manoj C.G
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