Commentary/Mani Shankar Aiyar
Is Jyoti Basu capable of Bengali perestroika?
The refusal of the CPI-M to countenance a realistic appreciation
of the ineluctable role of the Congress in national politics is
the strongest suit the BJP has in its pack of cards. So long as
the far Left insists on building a Berlin Wall between itself
and the Congress, the BJP will have the advantage of acing a divided
secular vote.
If, indeed, the era of coalitions has dawned --
and I am not sure it really has -- the refusal of the far Left
to accept political reality constitutes an invitation to the communal
Right to project itself as a credible national alternative. It
has taken but six months for public opinion to conclude that a khichri
sarkar is not an enduring solution.
The next general election
will probably see a backlash away from a fractured verdict. That
can only benefit the BJP. Of course, it will be more likely to
benefit the Congress if, by that election, my party is able to
get its act together. But whether the Congress is able to effect
a nation-wide rejuvenation or not, the far Left seriously needs
to rethink its position.
Twenty years in power is a long time -- and the latest state election
in West Bengal have signalled what can only be an inevitable long-term
trend: the erosion of the CPI-M vote-bank. One man's personality
has staved off reverses for over a decade. But even that charisma
is a declining asset. before Nripen Chakraborty's fate overtakes
the present CPI-M leadership, they need to recognise that the
next election will not only see a diminution in the regional
vote but also a decline in the far Left vote,.
The Congress will,
I hope, have by then strengthened itself to be the recipient of
the support that drifts away from the regional and the Left; but
even then it is going to be difficult to return to the halycon
days of indubitable single-party majorities. Therefore, the consensus
on the nature of our nationhood will have to be maintained by
the secular parties all together against the continued onslaught
from the behemoth of Hindutva.
The far Left needs, therefore,
to decide whether, in these circumstances, its touch-me-notism
must continue to extend to the Congress.
A more reasonable CPI-M approach to the Congress at the national
level does not mean, of course, that the Congress will call off
its Mamta Banerjees and Priya Ranjan Dasmunshis. Not at all.
One the contrary, it is the Mamtas and Priyas that the Congress
will be projecting as its alternative state-level leadership. But
that is the pattern in every state; West Bengal will merely fall
into the same pattern.
Indeed, all constituent members of the
United Front, and the Congress itself, will have to learn to reconcile
internecine disputes in the states with a measure of cohabitation
at the Centre. This, I hope, will make it easier rather than more
difficult for the CPI-M to recognise that its national duty lies
beyond West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala.
Is Jyoti Basu capable of Bengali perestroika?
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