One thing, though– CPM/CPI(M) were very much the lead operators in the United Front Govt., so the treatment of the Naxalites can’t be blamed entirely on the Congress Party.

Actually, Amrita, I was talking about the original Naxal movement, where Naxalbari, a village in the North of Bengal became the epicenter. It was during that period, that a Congress govt. was in place in Bengal, lead by Siddhartha Shankar Ray. The clampdown by the state on the movement was draconian to say the least and young people were rounded up and shot dead. And that kind of scarred the general population and made them left leaning. The present day Naxalite movement derives it’s name from there.

I am also aware of the second point that you make. In fact CPI(M) had left no stones unturned to propagate this idea that the center was perpetually against the interest of the state. Which in my opinion is part true part false. In fact the constant harping of this tone has led a large section of the Bengal population to believe that they are victims of the Center’s agenda. This often comes forth in violent reactions to some perceived ‘anti-Bengal’ actions, like dropping of Sourav Ganguly from the India team.

True dat, Pranav

Thanks, Dipesh. One thing, though– CPM/CPI(M) were very much the lead operators in the United Front Govt., so the treatment of the Naxalites can’t be blamed entirely on the Congress Party. The drive for agrarian reform was the true grass roots movement, and the alliance with tribal peoples and the sarcastic use of kangaroo courts utterly terrifying to urban types assigned to manage the rebels. Of course, some of this could be classified as criminal misconduct and extremely harsh retaliatory measures quite wrongfully adopted.

There is another aspect to the various streams of Communism in WB, which hardly dare speak its name or reason– i.e. supposedly not so much anti-industrial as pro-Bengali. In other words, where capital accumulation in the hands of Bengalis seemed to have failed in the course of Bengal’s closest encounter of all with the British, that period, and consequently the early years of Independence, saw the advancement of other communities in the ownership and management of the old and developing “heavy” industries, to the exclusion of Bengalis. (I’m understanding more about this as I read Willam Dalrymple’s new book.) So private funds continued to flow out of Bengal as well as tax revenues siphoned to Delhi (certainly up through the sixties and seventies) which were then, much as NYC to Washington, not ploughed back in proportion into public works in Kolkata and environs, includng WB, Assam, Bihar and Orissa.

I wonder if they are ever going to mess with Sainik Farms, which is basically ALL illegal, but comprises the enormous mansions of various rich business families.

My nana has a farm there, I remember going there every sunday to play cricket and swim..Oh how i miss the drive to gurgaon

As for the Delhi sealing drives, there have been versions of these for years. The problem is that there are very very few legal commercial zones in Delhi (Okhla, CP, the residential colony markets), they just don’t meet the demand, and there’s lots of money to be made by getting shopowners to pay bribes to prevent their shops being sealed – every now and again the MCD will start breaking some shops in a market to scare the shopowners, but it’s terribly hypocritical because they are the ones who kept the system going and took the bribes in the first place. But just as upper middle class and activist judicial anger reached a boiling point over slums in Bombay, they did the same for illegal structures in Delhi, and so the MCD was in a bind. They really need to overhaul urban planning and make it more realistic – the sad thing is there ARE lots of groups proposing plans that would incorporate and license thelas and expand commercial space but there are also lots of vested interests that want to keep things the way they are. And the traders/shopowners are a core constituency of the BJP, and more powerful than poor migrant slumdwellers, so they will naturally resist any overhaul of urban land-use policy that would put their businesses at risk (rather like the Narmada valley villagers, why should they trust the govt to compensate them properly?)

How come CPI ruled WB for so long? Rigged elections of course.

That’s not entirely correct actually. They survived mainly due to two factors :

1.The horrors of the Congress rule pre-1977 and what went on during the Naxal movement essentially pushed a lot of people to the left.

1. The presence of any respectable opposition. With Mamata Banerjee breaking away from Congress and creating her own party, the opposition was broken right down the middle. As a result votes against the CPM (not CPI as you mention, which is a coalition partner of the CPM) were fractured into Congress and TMC.

The last election was actually managed very well by the Election Commission, deploying thousands of paramilitary forces and conducting elections in five phases. Specifically to clamp down on rigging. What was the result ? — CPM won by historic margins. And that’s exactly where CPM’s arrogance stems from, with an opposition dwindled and almost non existent, they thought the people would support whatever (mis)adventure they engaged in. But that was not quite the case. I guess fear of losing livelihoods would make even the most ardent communist insecure. And thus it was an easy opportunity for an array of opposing parties (ranging from Maoists to Islamists) to prey on it.

In my view, the main political feature of Indian Communism is that it has basically become like a social-demorcratic or labor party in Europe. Whatever transformations it seeks are through participating in elections, labor unions, and other official channels. As such, it will often take positions on class, communalism, education, etc. that are to the left of the other parties–but will also take positions that are in line with the interests of regional and national capital (pro-globalization, pro-nationalism, etc.) As with any ruling party in that position, the CPM will seek to suppress mass agitation from below.

If you read stories about Nandigram in Frontline, a left magazine which is nevertheless quite apologetic about the CPM, who will see what I mean.

I don’t think we need to see this as anything exceptional. The South African CP, for instance, was quite radical in the anti-apartheid struggle but has hitched its wagon so tightly to the ANC that ir barely raises a peep against its anti-worker amd pro-globalization politics. The Chinese and Cuban situation is different because of lack of elections and democracy, but the feastures ars the same: gaining political power and maintaining it is more important than grassroots mobilization and struggle.