Communist left struggling for survival

India’s Communists yesterday found themselves out in the political cold with a massive defeat in its 34-year bastion West Bengal and a loss, albeit a narrow one, in Kerala, leaving them with just a narrow sliver of power in northeast’s Tripura.As votes were counted for elections to the five assemblies - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry - it became evident that the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) led Left Front could take solace only in Tamil Nadu where it tied up with the victor AIADMK.However, there too, it became apparent that the Left support was not vital with the AIADMK stating that the party, led by J Jayalalithaa, had won enough seats to form government of its own.The Communists were down but definitely not out despite the bleak outlook, was the refrain in Left circles. “The results of West Bengal and Kerala will be a disappointment for the Left and democratic forces. But this will, by no means, make the Left policies and programmes irrelevant for the country,” the CPI-M politburo said in a statement.Hinting that the Left was not thinking of any major policy change, the statement said: “The CPI(M) and the Left forces will continue to ... vigorously pursue the struggle against the neo-liberal economic policies, defend the livelihood and interests of the working people and combat communalism and defend secularism.”It was a vote for change in West Bengal, said CPI-M politburo member Sitaram Yechury, attempting to explain the absolute rout in a state it had ruled for 34 uninterrupted years.The Left defeat in West Bengal, Yechury said, was because the “people opted for a change and the main beneficiary of the change has been the Trinamool Congress”.“As far as West Bengal is concerned, 34 years of rule by the CPI-M is a record. And a similar record is not present anywhere else in this democratic system,” he added.Asked about implications of the assembly elections on national politics and specially on the future of Left parties in India, Yechury said: “Left parties get their power from mass movements and not just by being in the power. They are not affected whether it is in the government or not. “We will remain relevant,” he added.Explaining the situation in Kerala, where the Left Democratic Front (LDF) narrowly lost with the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) getting a slender majority of only two seats, the CPI-M said: “The results show the people have by and large endorsed the record of the LDF government of the past five years.“This shows that there has been no anti-incumbency trend. However, some caste and religious forces have worked to influence the elections.”The party attributed the anti-DMK wave in Tamil Nadu to not only the 2G spectrum scandal involving former DMK minister A Raja but also the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government led by Manmohan Singh.“The Tamil Nadu result is a decisive rejection of the corrupt misrule of the DMK and is also a verdict against the corruption which has flourished under the UPA regime at the Centre,” the statement said.

Taslima taunts Buddhadeb, praises MamataControversial writer of Bangladeshi origin Taslima Nasreen yesterday heaped praise for Mamata Banerjee and posted sarcastic tweets on the dismal performance of West Bengal’s Left Front in the assembly elections, asking how Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee could lose when he threw her out of the state “to get Muslim votes”. “How come Buddhadeb Bhattacharya (Bhattacharjee) is losing! He threw me out of West Bengal to get Muslim-votes! Ah, still a nightmare! (sic),” Nasreen tweeted. Nasreen, who has been living in exile since 1994, was dramatically bundled out of West Bengal in 2007. Despite her wish to return to the state, the Left government did not pay any heed to her request. Hopeful of returning to West Bengal after the change in power, Nasreen said: “Hope Mamata Bandapadhaya (Banerjee) will not prevent me from entering WB. I’m not a factor in elections. The CPM’s defeat has proved it (sic)”.