Dialectics or politics?

The CPM politburo’s endorsement of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s economic policies in West Bengal is both a matter for cheer and concern. This endorsement should be welcomed, because it indicates that the CPM’s Central Politburo has no intention of slowing down or reversing the innovative reform initiatives that are coming from the West Bengal government on foreign direct investment and privatisation. The CPM’s position is also an endorsement of the economic rationale for such policies.

But precisely because the Politburo endorses the West Bengal government’s policies, its obstructionist stance on reform at the national level is even less justified. With a little bit of dialectical jugglery the CPM’s approach to Bengal and its approach to the Centre can be made consistent. But to do this would be to miss the force of the following question. The central government is facing challenges that are, at one level, similar to those faced by the West Bengal government. Both the Centre and the states have to attract investment. Both need to restructure and privatise public sector units. Both need to grapple with runaway fiscal deficits and payouts in the form of pensions. And the rest of the country, as much as Kolkata, require FDI. Then why the double standards? The only plausible answer to this is that the CPM is putting its short-term interests ahead of the interests of the nation. It is true that in West Bengal the party has to respond to the imperatives of governance. But, at the Centre, it has the luxury of acting like an opposition party, unencumbered by the responsibilities of governance. Political parties often speak in one language when they are in government and a different one when they are not. But this gap cannot be too wide.

The CPM also faces a different political challenge at the Centre. The Left can increase its power only at the expense of the Congress, and its attempts to block reform cannot be interpreted as anything but a ruse to make the government look weak. But the CPM is mistaken if it thinks that obstructing reform will make it more popular. It is time for the CPM to give up its double-speak. It should argue that what is good enough for Bengal should be good enough for the rest of India.