I’m no fan of the UPA government, and nor do I once discount the notion that Dr Manmohan Singh has been a weak prime minister. But today, I am filled with hope that the Left parties have been shown their rightful place in the Indian political system. Nowhere.
But it’s not just that. In the last few days, the Left has also systematically and inexplicably squandered whatever little doubt people may have had about the possibility that the Communists were a scrupulous and ideologically conscientious bunch. The Left parties, especially the CPIM, have showed themselves up for the first time to be regular politicians like everyone else. All notions of them being obstinately ideological are now permanently gone. Abandoned like dogs by the Samajwadi Party, comrade Karat canoodled with Mayawati, in an instant subverting the CPIM’s draconian fear of melding minority politics into its organisational fold. That old fool Bardhan went so far as to call Mayawati the country’s next Prime Minister. The Left even found it fit to collude with the BJP! Of all things, this was surely the end of any doubts anyone had about the Left’s so-called moral rectitude and integrity.
The expulsion of Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee yesterday was the last straw. The lead editorial in today’s Express put it perfectly: “Until they [the Left] learn that institutions are valuable in and of themselves, and not as way-stations; that we do not live in a world in which dissenters can be airbrushed out of photographs; and that decisions made in bitterness and anger will usually be blunders, they will never occupy the social democratic space at the centre which they so clearly feel is theirs by right.“
The era of the Left is hopefully now over. Hopefully a campaign will be mounted to clean the vestiges of their poisonous influence from the innards of our polity, our economy and the thought process of our security system. Hopefully now, a whole host of defence deals and agreements left in the lurch as a result of surly and presumptuous letters by Sitaram Yechury, can now reach their logical conclusion. That, and the rest of the country.
The letters are by Prakash Karat and not by Sitaram Yechury…Pl check your facts Shiv
nope. i have three letters — one against the kalaikunda air exercise, one against israel deals in general, and a third against the barak deal. all three are signed by yechury. so check your< facts, lady.
shiv
even more terrifying is the fact that the old fools in th e Left said that their party rules were more important than the Indian constitution in justifying the speakers expulsion.
I do not think this lot can be rid of in a democratic manner because they will not respect democracy once they get power
The Israel deals in general was signed by Karat and not Yechury…even I have a copy, Sir
the Left is only weakened, not dead… we shouldn’t be too optimistic.
The left is alive as long as we have organised labour in India. The left only caters to organised labour….. the poor and unorganised labour is not the Left’s constituency. I agree with Shiv…..thank God that we are rid of the Left trying to prop up the UPA government, on crutches……with illogical conditions, conditions that no government should have to endure – a condition of unquestioned authority without any resposibility or accountability to the people of India. We definitely need more left leaders who have occupied chairs and learnt the meaning of accountability and responsibility… leaders like Somnath Chatterjee, Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb… they are left of centre and pragmatic leaders, not theoretically correct leaders.
I don’t know that the leftists are done for. Their influence in the Congress is certainly on the wane however and that is no small feat in itself.
I remember reading that Gandhi chose Nehru in 1935 as Congress president so that he would be acceptable to the leftists in the party while the rightists like Bose, Patel and Prasad were asked to accept this choice. It is instructive to see that even back then the leftists were seen as uncompromising and more dangerous to party unity than the rightists.
PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh have done a signal job in reversing the folly of Gandhi’s decision to accomodate the leftists.
Left is simply a thorn in the flesh. All they do best is criticize the ruling side (even when they are themselves part of the coalition).
They are a set with more attitude than logic.. leave alone the welfare of the nation. They can point finger and say someone is wrong – but how to do it better, they will never know.
Initially I thought that this whole drama of withdrawing support was to get more publicity for the third front, but thank god they ended up no-mans land. I sincerely hope they dont form part of a ruling coalition again.
That said, post election, we will see how politics is more arithmetics than ideals..
left are like locust swarms. They only know how to suck life out of something. In our more than 60 years of independence they haven’t contributed to any progress of the country. The one state they have ruled like their fiefdom is in tatters. They have given birth to Naxals that like locusts have caused harm to U.P, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, M.P., Chattisgarh and A.P., not to mention the fact that they originated from West Bengal in the late 60s.
The Left has expelled Somnath Chatterjee because “He was following the Indian Constitution but we [the Left] have to follow the party Constitution.”
Seriously, how can the people who give precedence to their own constitution over that of the nation they purportedly serve be trusted with its security?