With about a month to go for the 2019 general elections, the political activity in the country is gathering steam. To assess the preparedness of the Left Front, specifically the Communist Party of India (Marxist), The Wire visited Muzaffar Ahmed Bhavan – the CPI(M) headquarters in West Bengal – at Alimuddin Street, Kolkata.
Once the busiest landmark of the city, the building now wears a dilapidated look. A handful of white ambassadors and Boleros are lined outside, with their chauffeurs busy on their phones. Another half a dozen staff members sit in different rooms on the ground floor along with the receptionist, who is reading Ganashakti, the official mouthpiece of the party.
After attending a state committee meeting, Mohammed Salim, a CPI(M) politburo member and MP from Raiganj seat, spoke with The Wire about issues ranging from polarisation in Bengal and the seat-sharing equation with Congress to the Pulwama attack and more.
Edited excerpts:
Is the Left still alive in Bengal?
The Left is still alive and kicking in Bengal. The national and state media have crafted a narrative about the fall of the Left. Such propaganda serves the interest of the ruling party – the Trinamool Congress (TMC) – and also that of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has been struggling to grow roots in the state.
Of course, I accept that we have lost some ground in West Bengal, but now we have made a strong comeback as is reflected in the recent Left Front rally in Kolkata on February 3.
Certain people are calling the Left Front rally at the Brigade Parade Ground a grand success. As a seasoned politician, how do you read the pulse of people who attended the rally?
People coming and attending the rally in such large numbers is itself a political statement. It also shows the organisational effort. To convene a meeting like that at the Brigade Ground requires organisational acumen, preparedness, assessment of people to understand the party’s strength. The rally sends a message – people want the Left back at the helm of the affairs in Bengal.
The poor, despite their differences, march together – tribals, SCs, minorities, rural, urban, all participated in the rally. And these people didn’t attend the rally for rhetoric, like Chalo Delhi (March to Delhi) or for our promise of new government. They follow us because our aim is to ensure that people’s issues are given priority.
Can you consider the rally’s turnout as the only parameter of the party’s strength? Turnout doesn’t translate into votes. How confident are you of winning seats?
You are partly right. But you can’t compare a rally organised by a right-wing party to that of a Left party. Modi’s rally is organised by event managers with lavish food and travel arrangements. They create hype before the rally to attract more people – those are manipulated crowd, with 2,000 people in the front, sometimes paid only to chant ‘Modi Modi’.
Look at the tamasha TMC held on January 19. There were month-long curtain raiser events, showcasing the participation of the chief ministers of various states. Most five-star hotels were booked, all big marriage halls were booked, and the food was lavishly arranged for them. Our rally had no extravaganza, the Left cannot afford that. Also attending our rallies comes with a cost, yet people came.
What cost are you talking about, could you please elaborate?
Because of the lack of democracy and weakening of democratic institutions in Bengal, poor people had to pay a price for attending the Left Front rally. If a person attends our rallies, the panchayat will mark them out and they won’t even receive relief material at the time of a flood or other such calamity. They won’t receive benefits of state or Centre-sponsored schemes even if they are entitled to it. Despite all this, lakhs turned up for the rally, this itself is a statement.
I have been attending Left Front rallies for the past four decades, never have I seen such a huge number of youth attending it – about 40% of those who gathered were young.
Local CPI(M) party workers complain that there is a lack of focus on the organisational front. They also said they’re not motivated, they are not aware of the decisions taken by top leadership. What is your opinion on this?
I agree with them. There are a few places in Bengal where the CPI(M) had a very strong, highly equipped party machinery. Now when this machinery got ruptured towards the end of our 7th Left Front government, it’s inevitable we will face some problem. However, the party had discussed all these issues in our state committee meetings.
We have already corrected some organisational issues in places like Burdwan, North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, Howrah and in parts of Calcutta. Also, the situation in the state is hostile towards the party and hence recovery is taking longer than expected. Motivating the youth is no easy task and a lot of work needs to be put in. It has been hard to find educated, competent and devoted members after the liberalisation of 1991.
A poster of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Credit: PTI
With barely a month left for the Lok Sabha election, what do you think is the most pressing issue in West Bengal?
People are being divided on the basis of religion. We are witnessing a strong polarisation in Bengal, the likes of which we have not seen in several decades. In my opinion, the polarisation is more severe here than in north India. This is extremely worrisome. Bengal has seen an unprecedented number of communal riots in the last five years, something we have not witnessed even in the pre-independence era.
Communal forces work together to dislodge Left from the state because they knew that as long as the Left is in the power, they cannot mobilise people on the basis of religion. I squarely blame Mamata Banerjee and the TMC for the communal tension in the state. Communal riots and violence in Bengal started within a year of her tenure as the chief minister.
At the India Today Conclave, you said, ‘Mamata Banerjee is the greatest invention of RSS.’ What made you say so?
If you ignore the last three months, Mamata Banerjee all throughout her political career never uttered the word ‘RSS’. She never blamed or attacked RSS for anything – this has been her stance since her Youth Congress days. After Babri Masjid was demolished, after the Ayodhya case, Mamata didn’t say a single word against the RSS.
When Mamata Banerjee first won the Lok Sabha election in 1984 from the Jadavpur constituency, I was working in that same constituency for Mr Somnath Chatterjee (former Lok Sabha speaker). And we found that the RSS cadres of that area worked for her to defeat the CPI(M). RSS sought a face in Bengal which can take on Marxists and she became that face for them. Throughout her career, she always downplayed the role of the BJP and the RSS in Bengal. What I am saying is well-documented.
Allegations such as these can be thrown on the CPI(M) too because, in 1977, Jyoti Basu himself welcomed the Janata Party government in which Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the foreign minister?
Again in 1988, BJP leaders attended joint rallies with the Left and even appeared for the first time on a platform with Jyoti Basu in Calcutta. What’s your take on it?
This was in 1989 when V.P. Singh left Congress and formed the Jan Morcha. When V.P. Singh came to Calcutta, there was a grand reception awaiting him. But there was no Vajpayee and the Left at that time made it very clear to Singh that there should not be any understanding with the BJP.
As for the photograph of Vajpayee and Jyoti Basu, it was taken at a meeting organised at Shahid Minar ground in 1977, after the Emergency ended and just before the Janata Party was formed. Politicians from Congress (O) (Morarji Desai faction), Congress for Democracy (Chandrasekhar faction), Socialist Party and the Jan Sangh organised a rally before the election to defeat the Congress. The Left joined them for the rally but this doesn’t mean we had business with Vajpayee or the Jan Sangh.
What is Left’s equation with Congress in Bengal? Some Congress leaders hinted that they will go alone for polls. Will there be an alliance?
It is for Congress to decide if they want to contest alone. Nothing conclusive has come from the preliminary talks on seat-sharing we held with them. All the Left parties will contest the election unitedly and if there are secular, democratic parties committed against the BJP and TMC, we are willing to cooperate and share seats with them too.
At the national level, where does the Left stand? Is the Left Front supporting the united opposition?
Where is the united opposition? Mamata held a rally in Kolkata and named it the United Opposition. Just because she declares the opposition united doesn’t mean it is united. Still, the media continues to call it united opposition, Federal Front, mahagathbandhan – All of this is nothing but Nagpur (RSS) agenda.
It’s just BJP and RSS propaganda, where they float the mahagathbandhan/Federal Front narrative. And just before the election, the narrative will be changed and media will start propagating that the mahagatbandhan/Federal Front has fallen apart and that the opposition is not united.
Once in a while, Mamata Banerjee will visit Delhi and talk about the Federal Front again. The whole idea came to light after Mamata held meetings KCR (K. Chandrasekhar Rao) and Shiv Sena. No one knows what happened to that Federal Front.
Now the estranged partners of the NDA have formed something called the Third Front. They are potential partners of the NDA. In case BJP fails to manage a majority of their own, these parties are most likely to join them. Mamata has said on record that she will support the BJP government if it is led by Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley or Nitin Gadkari. Because of some political leaders, people’s issues are getting diluted and personal ambitions come to the fore. Communist party or the Left Front as a whole don’t go for personal ambition, our demand is people’s issue must come to the fore.
What is your opinion on the way the government has handled the situation post the Pulwama attack?
After the unfortunate incident took place in Pulwama where 44 CRPF jawans were killed, the prime minister was busy shooting a documentary and addressing public rallies. This is not the response we expect from a leader. The government is exploiting a war-like situation, utilising television studios, newspapers and social media to create a quasi-communal atmosphere.
The governments of Pakistan and India are not looking for a solution, they are trying to survive on the Kashmir crisis. Instead of mitigating the tensions with a resolution, the BJP government is politicising the situation to gain traction in the upcoming election.
Himadri Ghosh is a Kolkata-based journalist.