The Congress and left (Communists) will fight the West Bengal elections together. At present, they are finalizing a seat-sharing agreement. This newfound camaraderie (read comraderie) doesn’t seem outlandish in the current political scenario. It is though, when perceived from a holistic point of view.
Congress and Left: How Indira Gandhi ensured that Maoists do not enter the mainstream
Believe it or not, there was a time when the Congress Party was actually quite nationalist. The Jawaharlal Nehru University has been in the news for some time, but its origin and purpose have been conveniently forgotten. This was one of the universities founded by Indira Gandhi for a specific purpose. Most people believe that that purpose was to give cosy jobs to proponents of the anti-establishment leftist ideology in order that their revolutionary instincts may be curbed. They wrote papers which they circulated amongst themselves, and enjoyed hefty salaries at the expense of the taxpayer. Her political shrewdness ensured that these mainstream Maoists were not a menace to the country.
Congress and Left: A Bloody History
What the Congress Party braved in West Bengal through the years is ghastly. The thirty-four years of Left rule there can be best described as neo-Stalinist. There existed no line separating the party and the government. Law enforcement agencies and leftist thugs worked as one unit. The elections were as fair as other autocratic leftist regimes around the world. The entire system functioned with one objective: upholding leftist supremacy. The Congress Party fought back in these adverse circumstance. In the process, sixty thousand of their cadres and supporters were murdered. Entire families were tortured and brutally massacred for owing allegiance to the Congress Party. This comes down to an average of one murder every four hours. Even elected Congress legislators were not spared. Bombs were hurled at them and they were often severely thrashed.
Congress and Left: Congress’s fall from grace
Today, the same Congress Party which sought to keep these forces at bay in the mainstream and confront them on the ground, is embracing them. The fact that they are a threat both to Indian sovereignty and acceptable standards of humanness, has been sacrificed at the political altar. The Congress Party’s electoral fall from grace is now being followed by a moral fall as well. This is not like accepting outside support to keep the Manmohan government afloat. This is a formal electoral alliance we’re talking about.
Congress and Left: Left’s brazenness
Do not for a moment think that the Communists are making no compromises when it comes to this alliance. The Congress Party has been the dominant force around the country which suppressed Communist ideology all along. It was the Congress Party which backstabbed them during the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal. It was the Congress Party which stood up to their anti-industry shenanigans in Kerala through the years. But the Communists have no shame. If they had any, they wouldn’t be Communists in the first place. Anyone in their right mind doesn’t support an ideology of which Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot are the paragons.
Congress and Left: Inauspicious wedding of 2 shameless Parties
That nobody is a permanent foe in politics, is a phrase for novels and television studios. No one ever thought it would be applicable in this context, especially after all the bad blood in between both sides, and quite literally. Their conduct in recent times suggests that they are two sides of the same coin. Apart from indicating that their principled stands through the years were humbug, it also indicates how politically desperate both sides are. Recently in a joint effort, they tried to make a hero of a woman-abusing twenty-eight-year old student.
Congress and Left: The Narendra Modi effect
The thing about Narendra Modi’s emergence on the national scene is that the Indian political arena has no gray areas today. The polarization is such that all outfits which professed rubbish and sucked the living daylight out of people, and never empowered them so that they can continue to play this game over and over again, have been forced to come together. If Modi is successful, their bluffs will be called and their time would be up. This is the reason Nitish, Lalu, Kejriwal, the left, the Congress and others are all playing a game of quid pro quo. It’s just that during the election season, like in Bihar and now in West Bengal, this game becomes overt. Under the garb of ‘secularism’ and other such misrepresented terms, their spin doctors attempt to court different votebanks.
The most hypocritical part of the upcoming state elections will be that the Communists and the Congress will continue to oppose each other in Kerala. But hypocrisy has been their elixir all along. It is time this depravity reaches its logical conclusion.