Arguably, it is this refusal to read the writing on the wall which was responsible for the Left's drubbing in its 34-year-old stronghold in West Bengal. Even today some of its thinkers believe a consolidation of the traditional support base of the Communists - the workers, peasants and agricultural labourers - would revive their fortune.

But there has also been an admission by Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), that there is "a disconnect between the Left and sections of the middle class". What is more, this "disconnect" has been most pronounced in the case of the "young who have benefited post-reforms in terms of better opportunities, jobs, income".

This observation, probably the first from a Communist which suggests that the economic reforms aren't such a disaster after all echoes what Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, and an ardent votary of the reforms, has said about the "steady improvement in the living standards" of a "substantial" section of the population.

If there is no backtracking by the Communists from Karat's position, especially to meet what he called the "big challenge" of reaching out to the well-off young people by updating the party programme, then there might at last be a pragmatic reorientation of the Communist parties, which have shied away from such an exercise despite the collapse of their doctrine in the former Soviet Union and its eastern European empire in 1989.

It isn't only the CPI-M leader who has spoken of a relook at the party's policies, Communist Party of India (CPI) leader A.B. Bardhan has also said the Left had "underestimated" the growth of the "great Indian middle class...in the last few decades", whose importance lay in the fact that it "moulds public opinion".

Unlike Karat, Bardhan was mildly critical of the new middle class because it was "more consumerist, more careerist". As a result, it might not respond to "struggle, propaganda, agitation", the familiar features of a communist movement, according to Bardhan. At the same time, this segment could not be ignored because "it is a very big mass of the people".

What is evident from these statements is the Left's realization that because of the huge size of the middle class, the
commissars can no longer deride it as lackeys of the bourgeoisie who deserve contempt rather than an attempt at assimilation. Besides, the modern means of communication via the mobile phones and the internet made these consumerists and careerists exert considerable influence on public opinion through radio, especially the private music stations with their amusing gigs, and television.

As such, the Communists have no option but to take cognizance of their presence on the social and political scene. Hence, there is a need to factor them into the Left's "tactics and policies", as Bardhan said. This is evidently where the "updating" of the party programmes will be necessary. For the comrades, however, such an enterprise will mean entering uncharted territory, for they will not be able to find any example in Russian and Chinese histories of the early and middle 20th century, when the communists had to deal with such a large, prosperous and influential middle class in these two countries.

Karat's acknowledgement that the economic reforms have provided "better opportunities, jobs, income" to a large section is important in this context. An acceptance of this line will mean that the communists will no longer be able to deride either the market or its corollary, imperialism, as stridently as before. It also means a belated justification for Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's pro-private sector initiatives in West Bengal although these were subsequently criticized as a lowering of the party's "ideological guard" by noted Leftist economist Prabhat Patnaik.

That the dogmatists in the CPI-M like Patnaik and former Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan will not be pleased with any further dropping of the ideological guard is obvious. Nor is it clear whether Karat's and Bardhan's comments are off-the-cuff remarks in media interviews or a serious articulation of a new party line.

It is possible that the doctrinaire group will resist any "updating" of the line by pointing to the 41 percent votes which the Left received in West Bengal and its narrow defeat in Kerala. But there is little doubt that a vigorous internal debate is on the cards.

Comment

comments...

I have read an interesting item Comrades wake up-------written by Amulya Ganguli. But I have some reservation on both the writes up and the statements of left leaders like Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan. Of course I share with the statement of Amartya sen that the left has lost its voice----!. Communism cannot be wiped out from the globe at least in India where over 78 percent people live below the poverty line -what may be the government sponsored figures! Communism or socialism is the voice of toiling mass. Nobody could ignore them. karat and Vardhan have wrongly interpreted the causes of left defeat---say as middle class disenchantment or dis connect of people towards left movement. Real cause is, I strongly feel, weaknesses in left parties to have direct contact with rural people in recent past as well as some mischievous spread against the left by corporates, multinationals , capitalist dominated media houses, particularly electronic media, which is growing slowly to reach the laps of vested interests ( One must have watched programmes like advertisements on electronic channels, particularly of Mayavati , chef minister of Uttar pradesh for one hour marking advertisements on various national and prominent channels like such freebies of advertisements in newspapers and news magazines so far). Media as a whole have become controlled media because of overflow of ads by the government and the control of government on media has increased many tmes and media have become tools in the hand of union government and state governments- virtual undeclared censorship is declared throughout the country and hardly anybody will find independent news and views in the media!
Fall of communism in countries of globe cannot be termed the decline of left movement in India. Of course, the present phase of economic reforms has benefited to the so called middle class to some extend- but the poor continue to still starve and are voiceless in this vast country- once one surveys the rural region of ndia, particularly Bihar.
We Indians have seen down falls of many parties in the present democratic set-up since independence-but one cannot write off the left parties, which have considerable base throughout the country. Left parties have secured about 40 percent votes, specially in rural areas, in the recently concluded assembly elections in West Bengal. Left parties in Kerala have lost the elections only by over little one percent votes while left parties have garnered more votes and more seats in Tamil Nadiu. I think these are temporary phases in the left debacle and left will bound to recover its lost ground in future elections because of its support among poors and dalits etc in rural areas like previous occasions continue. Left parties must be uniting themselves in course connections and replicate the model of China and Cuba for its strengthening its base in India!
In ths bourgeoisie-oriented conservative society in India- people are fed up with atrocities on poor and specially women. Gap between poor and rich are increasing by leaps and bound. In Bihar itself , lands are concentrated in the hands of upper caste and intermediary classes among backwards- the Nitish government faled to implement land reform measures as recommended by Bandopadhaya committee report. Nitish Kumar had announced land to landless and implementation of batauiari act to have greater say of landless on the lands of absentee landlords and land-holders as per Bandopadhaya committee report- but pressure of land-owing classes among Koiris-Kurmis among backwards and also vast track of surplus government lands and also with big land holders and ultimately his coalition partners-BJPprevailed and Nitish kept mum and he put his ambitious announcements in cold storage of official files, Nitish does not have to time to think about landless people in Bihar, who constitute over 80 percent in the state.
Not only that atrocity of upper caste in Bihar and tamil Nadu are on rise . In Tamil Nadu- poor and dalts are isolated in over dozen districts and untouchability still continues there as per a latest report of Frontline.
All these factors and good deeds of left parties during UPA one like Narega, right to information, welfare measures for women, and many developmental programmes of union government for rural poor are gaining ground and poor know how the left has strived hard for their implementation. Apart from that, left parties have saved the union and state government undertakings, running in profit from their rampant sales by union government and various state governments. These are the facts on records- than how one can presume that left have declined and it could not be revived in India.
K K Singh, Journalist, retired from Times of India as chief reporter and based at Patna.