Withering left front in West Bengal : maladies closing in

Endgame

In the mean time the Berlin wall had fallen. The sense of loss could not have been felt more keenly anywhere in the world. A decrepit regime had fallen after a lot of bravado and pretenses and belying expectations of generations. Was there an object lesson here, asked the more perceptive intelligentsia some still empathising with the left front (LF) government ? But the voice of reason emphasising the need for introspection and course correction did not find favour with the left establishment which more and more was being overrun by opportunists and gradually by people with corrupt and even criminal backgrounds, at various levels of the parties, having a stake in perpetuating themselves at the helm for any but altruistic reasons. The moral ascendancy of the left was seriously undermined in the eyes of a whole lot of left sympathisers. The natural immunity against political incumbency was all but lost.  

Finally, the centrally sponsored liberalization and the eventual globalisation agenda having won the day since 1991 West Bengal found itself in a perilous competition with the center and most states in the country for which the state was ill prepared. Being presented with an alternative path for economic growth and well being embraced by the country, with spectacular results at least in some states, regions and cities detailed daily in the print and the television media, the sense of being left out in this new growth scenario was unavoidable for most Bengalis, more so for the articulate middle class intelligentsia. Desertion of the ship began in right earnest. Looking for better opportunities (education, job, material gain) anywhere in the country or even abroad became the norm. With growing interaction with other places, people who ventured out brought new perspectives and these in turn provided further centrifugal pull against the inertia of the ungroomed. Most sections of Bengalis felt an urgency about acquiring material prosperity and a quality of life they felt they were entitled to, being enjoyed  by people elsewhere in the country and which they were long deprived of. How best they could compensate themselves and their children for the lost years was what occupied them more than the morality of the liberalisation and the naked exploitation that this would eventually entail and the lurking imperialist design behind the globalisation programme. No wonder Karat and co’s strident anti-American rant did not cut any ice with the voters during 2009 loksabha elections. This was a classic demonstration of the disconnect of the party from the people, though as a trend this was discernible earlier.        

It was only a matter of time that the left front had to fall like the Berlin wall twenty years ago.