Examination Marx

Clever as they undoubtedly are, Marxist leaders must have a reason for believing that after four years of telling the UPA when to jump they can ask everyone to believe they are untouched by incumbency. Just that it’s very hard to fathom that reason. The ruling dispensation that is facing elections is the UPA-Left combine. They have had dinner together once a year the last four years, and the rest of the time the Congress has been anxiously looking for policy crumbs the Left has allowed. Which is why the UPA has behaved more or less the way the Left wanted it to: no major reform, most likely no nuclear deal, a dreadful worsening in Congress-BJP relations, plenty of anti-market rhetoric from Congress leaders, the Congress’s political refusal to take ownership of India’s best years of economic growth. A government for the Left and by the Left, and sometimes de facto of the Left. So the CPM central committee discussions on how to time a break-up and which “anti-people” issue to choose as the provocation do not change the widely held perception among the people that the Left, perhaps more than the Congress, has been ruling the country.

There’s a broader point here, one that all non-Marxist political players must appreciate. Marxists wanting to stir the pot but refusing responsibility for what’s cooking is dangerously amoral. Coalitions and alliances are necessarily matters of political tactic and convenience but a baseline morality of being together exists. With 60-odd MPs drawn mostly from two states, the country didn’t give the Left a mandate in 2004 to referee the incoming government. Even without ministerial participation, the Left had the same minimum moral obligation to the ruling arrangement as other UPA allies. The Marxist thesis that no such obligation existed is why the UPA has looked so dysfunctional for such large parts of its time in office.

Whichever way voters return their verdict in the next general election, it would be extraordinary if the Left’s role as an incumbent at the Centre is not scrutinised.

Indeed, for the first time — the United Front was too short-lived — the Left will have to deal with state-level incumbencies in Bengal and Kerala as well as Centre-related incumbency. If that sounds tough, it is no more than what the Left deserves given its political conduct.