{"id":14270,"date":"2021-03-17T17:44:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T12:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/?p=14270"},"modified":"2021-03-18T00:00:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T18:30:36","slug":"cpiml-wrong-turn-in-west-bengal-a-political-commentary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/cpiml-wrong-turn-in-west-bengal-a-political-commentary\/","title":{"rendered":"CPI(ML): Wrong Turn in West Bengal: A Political Commentary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Published on People’s Democracy 14.03.2021 issue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE general secretary of the CPI(ML),\nDipankar Bhattacharya, has been airing his views in the media for some time,\nabout the tactics that the Left should adopt for the West Bengal assembly\nelection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has been criticising the CPI(M) and the\nLeft Front for equating the BJP and the Trinamool Congress and for calling for\na fight against both the BJP and the TMC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has, in an interview to The Hindu, dated March 8, said that the political line taken by the CPI(M)-led alliance is \u201cnarrow, short-sighted, suicidal\u201d.\u00a0 He has also said that the Left Front is \u201cunderestimating the BJP while targeting Mamata Banerjee and the TMC\u201d.\u00a0 As against this \u201cerroneous\u201d line, the CPI(ML) has decided to distance itself from the CPI(M)-led front and go it alone.\u00a0 According to reports, the CPI(ML) will fight in 12 seats, support the Left Front in probably 12 to 15 seats and in the rest, campaign for the defeat of the BJP, thereby indicating that in over 200 seats, their support is for the TMC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike what the CPI(ML) alleges, the\nCPI(M) and the Left Front have not equated the BJP and the TMC.  There is no underestimation of the threat\nposed by the BJP in West Bengal.  The\nHindutva forces are on the offensive in the state and the Lok Sabha election\nresults of 2019 showed the advance and the danger posed by them. However, this\ndoes not mean that the Trinamool Congress and its brutal regime can, in any\nway, be considered to be a partner or ally in the fight against the \u201cfascist\noffensive\u201d that the CPI(ML) general secretary talks about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is necessary to have a proper\nunderstanding of the role the Trinamool Congress has played in West Bengal and\nthe character of the Mamata Banerjee government.  The TMC was the spearhead for the\nanti-Communist and anti-Left forces in West Bengal.  By fascistic violence and lumpen politics, it\ntargeted the CPI(M) and the Left Front and sought to physically suppress the\nLeft movement.  In the past decade, over\n220 cadres and supporters of the CPI(M) and the Left have been killed, thousands\nwere driven out of their homes, over a lakh false cases instituted and in many\nparts, a regime of terror established. \nThe TMC began its political career as an ally of the BJP and as late as\n2014, Narendra Modi saw the TMC as a potential ally.  It is the establishment of TMC rule and the\nsuppression of the Left that facilitated the rise of the BJP. Unlike what the\nCPI(ML) believes, `fascism\u2019 cannot be fought by an anti-democratic, lumpenised\nparty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

It will be a mistake to consider the TMC\nas similar to the Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar, or, the Samajwadi Party in\nUttar Pradesh. In the name of fighting fascism, you cannot sup with the\ndevil.  The TMC and the Mamata government\nhave been opposing and unleashing repression on the general strikes of the working\nclass and the struggles of different sections of the working people, even when\nthey are directed against the policies of the Modi government such as the\nNovember 26 general strike. A tragic example of the brutal repression was the\ndeath of a young man, Maidul who died due to injuries suffered due to severe\npolice beating during a youth-student protest rally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CPI(ML) is underestimating the depth\nof popular discontent against the TMC regime. This is a state assembly\nelection. If the Left Front will not firmly, vigorously and unequivocally fight\nfor the defeat of the TMC government, a large part of this popular discontent\nwill be garnered by the BJP.  Even in the\nLok Sabha election of 2019, a bulk of people who were suffering under the TMC\u2019s\nautocratic regime, voted for the BJP, as they considered the Left Front too\nenfeebled to effectively fight the TMC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation in West Bengal today is that\neven to rouse the people against the BJP\u2019s evil designs, it is necessary to\nfurnish your anti-TMC credentials to get their attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What electoral tactics the CPI(ML) has\nspelt out in West Bengal is not going to help the fight against the BJP.  Mamata Banerjee has expressed her thanks to\nvarious parties for extending support to the TMC and the list includes the\ngeneral secretary of the CPI(ML). It is unfortunate that the CPI(ML) is\nperversely considering the TMC as a better political force to fight the BJP\nthan the Left Front in West Bengal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published on People’s Democracy 14.03.2021 issue THE general secretary of the CPI(ML), Dipankar Bhattacharya, has been airing his views in<\/p>","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":14290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[55,43,838,281,87],"class_list":["post-14270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campaigns-struggle","category-home-banner","tag-bjp","tag-cpim","tag-cpiml","tag-riseagainstfascism","tag-tmc-bjp"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/347"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14270"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14294,"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14270\/revisions\/14294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cpimwb.glohtesting.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}