Back on the backfoot

After a long and unbroken spell of what critics call 'totalitarian' power, the CPM is on a real sticky wicket

Rajat Roy Kolkata

After almost three decades of one-dimensional power and absolute arrogance, holed up in its own bastion, the CPM is in a quandary. While pressure is mounting on the CPM-led Left-Front government in West Bengal to restore peace and order immediately in Nandigram, the initiative has been snatched by minor partners like the Forward Bloc (FB) and Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) of the ruling front. After the first round of 'all party peace talks' on May 24, it seems the CPM has been sidelined in this crucial political process.

Last month, bowing to pressure from within and from civil society, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and the CPM's state secretary Biman Bose repeatedly appealed to the warring factions in Nandigram to participate in the talks; but they failed to get any positive response from the opposition parties. Then the front partners came forward. Since the March 14 massacre in Nandigram with the  police and CPM cadre working in tandem, sympathetic noises made by the RSP and FB leaders earned them the trust of the opposition parties. Hence, when RSP's Kshiti Goswami, who is a minister, proposed that octogenarian FB leader Ashok Ghosh be entrusted with the task of holding the peace talks, Mamata Banerjee and other opposition leaders promptly gave their consent, thus signalling their deep distrust as far as the ruling CPM leaders are concerned.

The CPM leaders were stung by the move. While they could not publicly oppose the peace initiative, they vented their anger on Bhattacharya for allowing the minor parties to take control of the situation. In a recently held state secretariat meeting, a number of party leaders criticised the chief minister for undermining the organisation. Led by Biman Bose, Suryakanta Mishra, Deepak Dasgupta, Amitava Bose and others, the CPM members voiced their displeasure; they reportedly said that the peace talks were arranged without involving the district party organisations.

Though the party could do nothing to stop the peace initiatives taken by the minor partners of the Left Front, they took measures to subvert the process. While all the mainstream political parties were invited to the meeting (even the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council and Laloo Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal were invited), they had little to do with the present political crisis. Ironically, not a single representative of Bhumi Uchchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC) of Nandigram was invited. The people, who had been in the forefront of the resistance movement in Nandigram, were given a go by. A front leader explained, "It suited both the opposition and the ruling Left, because, what the people of Nandigram have done can become a dangerous omen for the mainstream political parties." Obviously, mainline parties did not like the fact that under the umbrella of the BUPC people from across the political spectrum were mobilised; consequently, the Trinamul Congress (TMC), Congress, Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI), Jamait-Ulema-e Hind, Naxalite groups, especially the Santosh Rana group's CPI(ML), and even local CPM supporters joined the massively popular resistance movement.

Now, the political parties, especially the TMC, want to exploit the movement for the next round of elections. They want to be the sole arbitrators of the fate of Nandigram. And that suits the CPM as it can then try to drive a wedge in the 'fighting unity' of the people of Nandigram. The FB leader Ashok Ghosh made no bones about this uncanny twist when he said that the list of invitees for the peace meeting was prepared in consultation with Biman Bose. 

However, the CPM is on a backfoot since the people's movements in Singur and Nandigram have exposed all the doublespeak. The impact of this 'anti-CPM wave' can be gauged from the recently held students' union elections in Jadavpur University and Presidency College in Kolkata, and BE and Science University, Shibpur, where the CPM's student wing Students Federation of India (SFI) lost badly to independent (mostly radical Left) student organisations. According to a senior CPM leader, the party had it coming. Even in the two 'by-elections' in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi, where the Nandigram massacre was the main campaign issue, the SFI was roundly routed by the radical Left, All India Students' Association (AISA).

Following the massive public outcry after the March 14 Nandigram bloodbath in West Bengal, Delhi and most parts of India, Biman Bose announced that the CPM will take up a three-month-long mass contact programme to explain the party's political position on industrialisation. Bose had then claimed that the CPM cadres would fan out to the villages of South Bengal and try to engage the people in a political debate. However, nothing of that sort happened.

Unlike in the 'heady past' when the CPM seemed unilaterally focussed and absolutely dominant, now it is transparent that the political activities of the party in such a charged situation have hit rock-bottom zero. Instead, the district organisation of the party in East Midnapore (in which Nandigram is located) has been too busy in organising relentless armed attacks on the people of Nandigram with the ambition to demoralise the struggle and coerce the locals back into the party's control. For these brazenly violent, unlawful and undemocratic tactics, the chief minister had to face serious criticism from veteran Jyoti Basu. In a recently-held state secretariat meeting, Basu had reportedly asked Buddhadeb Bhattacharya point blank: Why are attacks being launched on Nandigram from Khejuri (a CPM stronghold in the neighbourhood)?  When Bhattacharya replied that the police had already been posted there to prevent them, Jyotibabu shot back, "Do you mean to say your police is unable to control the situation, or are they unwilling to do that?"

Bhattacharya's problem is that he is under tremendous pressure from both the national leadership and a section of the state leadership; they want him  to stop the continuous violence in Nandigram and bring a semblance of peace. Prakash Karat, the CPM general secretary, and AB Bardhan, the CPI general secretary, are of the view that because of Nandigram the image of the Left outside Bengal has been seriously damaged. At the state level, the pressure on Bhattacharya is building up within the party, the Left Front and outside, and interestingly, the concerted attack is seemingly led by Jyoti Basu himself. Clearly, in Basu, the front partners have found an ally. Basu gives them a patient hearing and often voices their concerns in the front's meetings. 

However, the CPM state leadership's woes are yet to be over. In July, 2007, elections will be held in the Haldia municipality. In normal circumstances this would not be a significant event, but this time it has become important politically. Haldia is adjacent to Nandigram and any setback there for the CPM is bound to create a chain-reaction leading to the build-up of next year's state-wide panchayat and municipal elections. That is why Mamata Bannerjee shifted her rally of May 21 from the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata to Haldia—predictably, the rally drew a huge crowd.

Currently, the Haldia municipality is controlled by the CPM. Its chairperson is Tamalika Panda Seth (wife of CPM strongman and local MP Laxman Seth, who is widely perceived to be the man who triggered the crisis and pushed for large-scale organised violence). In the last elections, everything was stage-managed by Laxman Seth. The TMC candidates in all the 23 wards withdrew their nomination at the last moment and thus helped the CPM candidates win the seats uncontested. Now, in the changed scenario, no opposition candidate would dare to do that. If the CPM faces a setback in the Haldia polls, it might create new and sharper political equations in politically polarised Bengal. Undoubtedly, after a long and unbroken spell of 'total' (critics call it 'totalitarian') power, the CPM is on a real sticky wicket.