Left: The idea is potent, ideology sucks

It is delayed by at least a decade but there’s the hint of a beginning at last. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is getting serious about re-inventing itself. It is planning to re-position its ideology to suit contemporary realities. The last such exercise took place in 1992, after Communist regimes in the USSR and Eastern Europe collapsed in a heap. The sense of urgency at this point is understandable. The party’s footprint in national politics is shrinking rapidly. It had been reduced to margins in most states over time and in the last assembly elections it lost two of its showcase states, West Bengal and Kerala. The Left, as a combined force too, has lost political weight. The decline has been sharpest after the it decided to withdraw support to the UPA government in 2008. At the grassroots, the CPM as well as other Left outfits barely exist. The party organisations are in tatters with no new blood to infuse energy into them. It still finds acceptance among the youth but that is mostly a short-term affair. There’s clear lack of ideas. And this is what has been afflicting the party at the top too. At the core of the Left’s problem is its ideology and the obstinate adherence to it. Its worldview, shaped by an ideology with roots in the social and economic conflicts of the mid-19th century and branches in the Cold War international politics, is dated. Moreover, it does not apply to the changing Indian social and political realities. It is in dire need of revision. Unfortunately for the Left, while the writing has been there on the wall for quite some time, its leaders refused to acknowledge that. Now that they are in the process of turning irrelevant in the political scheme of things, the seriousness of the situation has sunk in. Not long ago there were talks of the CPI and the CPM coming together. Now, there’s the talk of ideological re-positioning. The comrades despite their intellectual brilliance surely have been slow earners. So where does the exercise begin? With introspection, ideally. And the correct reading of the country. The process of liberalisation and economic boom has, curiously, created the grounds for the Left’s revival. There are too many people in the rain shadow zone of prosperity, there are too many issues involving the poor and too many battle zones involving the haves and have-nots. New classes have emerged and there are conflicts which need political intervention. The Left already has a rich catchment area. [caption id=“attachment_96387” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Left would need to shift to a centrist position in Indian polity. Reuters”]  [/caption] But it has to rise beyond grievance politics and the politics of protests and opposition too. The Left’s biggest failure has been to take all the classes along. Their ideology has been the biggest handicap in this direction. It never promoted a cohesive and unifying principle. Changing this would be a massive effort. The Left might not be prepared for that at this point. It might look like any other party after the change and lose its unique selling proposition. But there’s simply no other go. The selling proposition has lost value in the market. It has to be re-worked. The Left cannot continue to be a political entity obsessed with sectional interests all the time. The Left would need to shift to a centrist position in Indian polity. It is not a bad gambit at all. Rigid ideologies don’t work in the pan-Indian context — neither the Right nor the Left. That the BJP was a success only with Atal Behari Vajpayee as its mascot is the proof. That Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi is turning inclusive in his approach is another. The Left could begin its experiment without hesitation. This would bring better challenges to the Congress in the centrist space. The biggest advantage with the Left is the idea of the Left itself. It appeals to the inherent goodness in human beings. Thus it can never get dated. No wonder it still finds traction among the youth. But the ideology built around the idea is flawed. There’s a call for change within the party already. But the Left has habit of killing dissent or calls for change. Hope this time CPM makes the right move, and other Left groups follow it.