The Left in India is in an existential crisis. Globally, the Left is identified with the cause of the underlings, the socially weak, the poor. Here, it is represented mainly by the two Communist parties – the CPI and the CPI-M – apart from the CPI-ML and other Maoist outfits as also a host of name-sake parties. The two Communist parties have shared power in Bengal, Tripura and Kerala, the last of which is the only live red outfit today. Elsewhere, the Left is withering away as their leadership fails to inspire.
The CPI-M and the CPI make their presence felt not by action but by media circuses. The leadership of the two parties think and speak in English, the language of the elite. They are not comfortable with Hindi. Worse, they have hardly been taking up the causes of the poor, other than organising the working classes, collecting annual levies and “minting” money. The CPI-M’s CITU has a stated membership of 60 lakh; and the levy it collects each year apart from a host of other collections is mind-boggling. Curiously, they “fight” these days mainly for more benefits to the government employees, bank executives and the like, exposing their ideological bankruptcy and degeneration. Even as the two Communist parties are politically at a dead end, they are “well-endowed”. This is making serious political pursuits a matter of only secondary importance to them. Reason why they are “fighting” with NOTA or Invalid Votes to gain the upper hand, as was evident also in the present round of polls in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi MCD. The only exception is Kerala, where the party is still in good form, though perceptions are that Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will, by his questionable styles, lay out another burial ground for the Communists.
For success in politics, sincerity to a cause is important. People are not fools. They catch on what interests them. Point to ponder: why, not even Muslims vote for the CPI-M even as it advocates their causes. Empty slogans or mouthing ideology from AC rooms will not take a party forward. Worse, when a bunch of leaders with no mass contact rely entirely on the media to hold forth and prove their presence, the party is set on the road to extinction. The West Bengal and Tripura drubbings did not help the CPIM leadership wake up. Its leaders foolishly pose themselves as movers and shakers. Flushed with money, the party holds its central committee/politburo meetings in the national capital frequently; its leaders flying down in style from state capitals at the drop of a hat. For what, many wonder.