Counting of votes for Assembly polls of Bengal is all set to begin soon and as far as the exit polls are concerned ufffd it's Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool party which is all set to sweep the polls in the state
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Counting of votes for Assembly polls of Bengal is all set to begin soon and as far as the exit polls are concerned ufffd it's Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool party which is all set to sweep the polls in the state. So I think I can safely say it's the end of CPM in Bengal. Or should I say the end of Stalinism in Bengal?
Well, the truth is that it is with a feeling of great betrayal that I write this edit. All Bengalis have a communist instinct hidden somewhere inside. It's in our culture. The more you read Bengali literature, the more you feel for those marginalised in the society; and the more the communism appeals to you. And Bengal's greatest pride, Rabindranath Tagore's thoughts on village employment, self reliance and actual work at Shanti Niketan, all have a huge similarity with the Marxist thought process.
It's thanks to this appeal, CPM came to power more than three decades back. In a lot of ways, the people of Bengal had come out and voted for poriborton with a lot of hope and faith. And the truth is that they delivered and worked with a lot of sincerity in the first ten years of their now infamous rule. It is after the first decade that the betrayal of Bengal started. The last 24 years undid everything. Rigging, killing, muscle power, police manipulation, dictatorship at the grassroots level, name a shame that dictatorships all over the world have done and CPM did that and worse to stay in power. The poor who are at the centre of Marxist thinking were the people being terrorised and exploited the most.
Yet, I am very sure it's not the end of the road for CPM in Bengal. This is the beginning of their training period in the art of appreciating the process of democracy and learning to abide by laws and respecting the people in a democracy. They can provide as a strong opposition to the Trinamool Congress.
More importantly, once the CPM in Bengal learns to become democratic like CPM in Kerala and Tripura, they might again remember the act of doing good for the poorest of poor, something that never fails to keep a party in power in an impoverished nation like India. But till they get their lessons over the next five to ten years in the opposition, here is wishing a great future to Mamata Banerjee, arguably the most fearless, honest and committed leader in India today.
And before I end, I must say hats-off to Dr SY Quraishi, our current chief election commissioner. He is not too loud, but what a man he is to have made a real rigging free election possible in Bengal. Long live poriborton!
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