Look how the tail wags

The CPI and other allies have lost both their self-identity and self-respect in slavishly toeing the CPM line. For how long?

Pranay Sharma Delhi

The ruling Left Front in West Bengal is somewhat like the Indian Joint Family: the brother with the fattest income purse tends to carry the big stick. The opinion and views of the other family members are either non-existent or are secondary to his. Since they survive on his dole, they rarely challenge his authority. For the past three decades, the CPM has had the privilege of carrying the big stick in the Front.

Some would say it is the Communist Party of India (CPI), the older of the two parties, that created the space for the CPM's growth, both in stature and size, by pursuing a string of wrong policies. The CPI's obsession to regard the Congress as 'national bourgeoisie' and, thus, a force with which the communists could work, split the party in 1964. It also led to its own isolation. When the Left, progressive and democratic forces all over India had launched a countrywide movement against Indira Gandhi's decision to impose Emergency, the CPI remained her main ally.

However, in 1977, when Lok Sabha elections were announced, the CPM offered the olive branch to the CPI. It wanted the CPI to contest at least 14 of the 42 seats from West Bengal for the lower house of Parliament. But the CPI decided to contest the elections - fought primarily on an anti-Indira plank — on its own. A few months later, when elections to the state assembly were held, the CPM again offered over 70 seats to the CPI, to be turned down yet again. There are many who think this to be the beginning of the CPI's decline. In a way it was also the reason why a democratic polity remained suppressed in Bengal for so long. If the CPI had accepted the CPM's offer, it could well have had much more significant presence in the state and acted as a counter-balance to the CPM in West Bengal.

The Left Front was formed with an alliance of eight parties in 1977. The CPM became the key partner and its main driving force. The Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) remained partners in the second rung, while the Revolutionary Communist Party of India, Forward Bloc, West Bengal Socialist Party, Democratic Socialist Party and Biplobi Bangla Congress largely made up the 'chorus'. Three years later, on the eve of the 1980 Lok Sabha elections, the CPI officially decided to distance itself from the Congress and joined the Left Front (LF). But the RSP and Forward Bloc had by then positioned themselves in the rung behind the CPM, and the CPI could only join their ranks, although with fewer seats than either of the two parties.

The first major revolt in the LF came from the most unusual quarter. Jatin Chakroborty, RSP leader and the public works department minister, decided to rebel against the Front leadership. But he chose the worst target — CPM veteran Jyoti Basu. Till then he was considered to be close to Basu, who was not only the chief minister but also the tallest among the other leaders, especially after the death of CPM's Bengal chief Promod Dasgupta in 1982. Differences between Chakroborty and Basu had been simmering over certain issues for some months, most famously, over singer Usha Uthup.