Sunday, May 17, 2009

Left out



After 32 years, the wheel has finally turned for the CPI(M). The results of the parliamentary elections are a resounding slap in the face of the party, which has been routed in Calcutta and across much of West Bengal. Those living outside West Bengal cannot imagine how unimaginable this is. One cannot help smiling!

The dark, dark night of CPI(M) rule has finally begun to come to an end. But so much damage has been done! Can it ever be rectified? Where would one begin?

Elections for the Calcutta Municipal Corporation in 2010, and for the state assembly in 2011. The CPI(M) can only sit and watch its own annihilation. Notwithstanding the hogwash of its gerontocrat apologists about making amends, the party is in an unstoppable self-destruct mode now, and I have no doubt that we are going to see some more spectacular performances by the party that is now nothing other than a mafia, gorged on the blood of the people.

Many people still think of the CPI(M) as "the Left". Left toe! A new politics is waiting to be born, something other than parties, of grassroots movements, of deepening democracy. The sooner people bury the CPI(M) - in their minds - the sooner such alternatives can emerge.

1 comment:

Mrinal Bose said...

I'm happy, but not elated, at the debacle of the fake Leftists in the Lok Sabha election. The people have rejected the Marxists for their dysfunctional behaviour, but the mandate is not really an endorsement on the TMC-Congress alliance.