Re: [nukkad] Verdict is Yours : 118

["Rohit Mansukhlal" <>]

[This message contained attachments that have been removed.]


Maloy

What is your personal judgement and opinion of several decades of communist
influence,
government rule in Kolkatta, West Bengal, has it benefited ? Or caused harm
? Most
people outside Bengal, who are generally non-Bengalis believe communism has
ruined the
state, the great city of joy and its people. But then these have never lived
inside Bengal, and
have knowledge of the place, people and events only through remote readings.
You being
Bengali from Bengal, I tend to rate your opinion as an opinion from within
and not from
without. Hope you will, at your leisure send in a few para.

Rohit Zaveri
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On 3/20/08, Maloy Manna  wrote:
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> [This message contained attachments that have been removed.]
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> My 2 cents on why the Left has been successful in Bengal.
>
> 1. Integrity of Left's top leaders - you'll rarely find a turncoat like
> you find in the other parties. The Left has also always maintained that
> communalism is evil #1 (BJP), followed by evil #2 (Congress), and remained
> pro-Cuba/China and anti-US with no change in its position over the years.
> Several top leaders e.g. the current CM Buddhababu live a simple life
> without any flaunting of wealth (vs Mayawati / Amar Singh).
>
> 2. Consistent identity politics - The Left has always identified with the
> poor - agricultural or industrial. They have cocked a snook at the
> nouveau-riche, the stock markets, the liberalization/globalization agenda
> and remained true to their mass support base.
>
> 3. Poverty alleviation and land reforms - Bengal was one of the poorest
> and most malnourished states when the Left came to power. Their land reforms
> was a success, and there is no more crippling poverty and famine like
> conditions. Even with the endemic corruption in India, Bengal has a
> reasonably functional public distribution system.
>
> 4. Failure of other parties- The Left has been successful in portraying
> the Congress as anti-poor. Identifying with the elite Gandhi family never
> worked here for Congress. Bengal has little tolerance for the antics of the
> BJP, not the least due to Ram being considered here to be a mythical figure
> and not a god. Even after the partition of Bengal in the early 20th century,
> there still remains a sizeable population of Muslims in Bengal - in urban
> pockets of Kolkata as well as in the Sultanate districts like Murshidabad.
>
> 5. Prices - If you've been to Kolkata, you'll know that the price levels
> in this metro is way below any other comparable city or town. In most of
> Bengal, the same holds true. Inflation is a very sensitive issue here due to
> the low income levels, which is why the Left as well as Mamta have no
> alternative than protest every price hike.
>
> 6. Organization - Long before the BJP and the Sangh parivar understood the
> importance of a cadre-based party, the Left had perfected the organizational
> framework in Bengal. The 'Party' has become the most important element in
> the lives of people.
> Need to get a job, to get a gas connection, to get a contract, to get
> through the red-tape of bureaucracy, and you better have connections with
> someone in the 'Party'.
> Feud with your tenants - get hold of the local 'Party' boys to teach them
> a lesson.
> The local 'Party' branch is always up-to-date with the voters' list and of
> course the officers in the voting booths have 'Party connections'. Rigging
> through "chappa votes" (votes stamped by cadres who take over the polling
> booth) is not required everywhere - only in places where the opposition is
> strong.
> Visit any college/university and the all powerful student union is almost
> inevitably being run by the SFI.
> Marx might have said that religion is the opium of the masses, but that
> doesn't prohibit the Left to put up stalls at every other Durga puja pandal
> to distribute its propaganda material and communist literature.
> There having been no change of government there in the last 3 decades, the
> police doesn't need to switch allegiances and functions as an important
> element of the 'party'.
>
> 7. Role of intelligentsia - At a time when Bengal was very poor - after
> the WWII and the Bengal famine, the Naxalite movement created a strong
> impression on young minds, several of who grew up to become major poets
> (Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Shakti Chattopadhyay) or film-makers (Ritwik Ghatak,
> Mrinal Sen) and theatre personalities (Sombhu Mitra, IPTA's Utpal Dutt /
> Salil Chowdhury). Due to a conducive climate, the intelligentsia never
> denounced communism, rather generated debates on the implementation and
> course corrections required in the communist regime.
>
> ~Maloy
>
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> 
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