As it explores options to revive the Left Front in West Bengal, the CPI(M) appears to be inclined to a nuanced cooperation with all forces – including the Congress — willing to battle the ‘anti-democratic’ tendencies represented by the Mamata Banerjee government in the State.
However, the CPI(M) is very clear it will not enter into any electoral arrangement with the Congress in West Bengal — or anywhere else – even though it is prepared for issue-based cooperation with it, especially in Parliament.
The party’s goal is to create an atmosphere against the Trinamool Congress government, much in the way that an anti-Emergency platform brought together disparate forces — from the CPI(M) to the socialist parties to the Jana Sangh — to dislodge the then Indira Gandhi-led Congress government.
This was the position taken at the 21st Party Congress in Visakhapatnam earlier this year, and reiterated after a State committee meeting in Kolkata last month by party general secretary Sitaram Yechury himself. The reiteration came in the wake of comments made by senior CPI(M) leader Gautam Deb at a press conference in Kolkata two days ahead of the State committee meeting.
He was reported as saying that the party should tie up with the Congress ahead of the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, while his colleague Shyamal Chakraborty, had drawn an obscure analogy: just as the historic Hazarduari monument in Murshidabad has a 1000 points of ingress and egress, the CPI(M), too, he said, had many options. On Friday, a key CPI(M) source said, “Mr. Deb’s statement was over-interpreted.”
State-specific line at poll time
The CPI(M) source pointed out that apart from the fact that Mr. Deb’s suggestion was violative of the party’s ideological line – not to have such a close association with a party that still follows neo-liberal policies – it also went against the party’s political-tactical line.
“Also, when the elections in Kerala and West Bengal are held next year, how can the Congress be an ally in one State and the main opponent in the other?” he asked.
A senior CPI(M) leader told The Hindu that Mr. Deb’s suggestion was rejected outright at the State committee meeting in the presence of Mr. Yechury. Mr. Deb also gave in writing what he did and didn’t say, and stressed that there was no question of going against the party line.
Mr. Deb, the man in the eye of the storm, when contacted on the telephone, gave a measured response: “The election strategy as it was discussed at the State committee meeting will evolve in due course. Now, [you will see] the political strategy to deal with the political situation in the country. Apart from the central guidelines, a State-specific position will be taken at the time of the elections. By that time, the positions taken by other parties will be observed.”
But simultaneously, he stressed, that apart from the danger of communal forces, there was the threat from the growing clout of anti-democratic forces. Therefore, the party, in the immediate future is focussing on two lines of action: one, its front organisations like CITU and SFI will launch an all-India strike on September 2.
The second, more relevant in West Bengal, is the “Save Democracy” movement: in that, Mr. Deb stressed, anyone fired by the idea could be a participant – political parties, individuals, intellectuals, singers, ex-judges.
He pointed to the Calcutta University Solidarity March on Thursday where there was a mix of people from different walks of life, but also the CPI(M)’s Bikash Bhattacharjee and the Congress’s Abdul Mannan. That, he feels, could be a trend setter, uniting all those against the Trinamool Congr
