Has the Indian Left entered a new phase in its politics? JNU Students’ Union president Aishe Ghosh is the latest young leader from the Left parties to look beyond the university campus into the electoral politics of the real world. Ghosh has decided to contest the upcoming West Bengal assembly election as the CPM candidate from Jamuria. Previously, Kanhaiya Kumar, also a JNUSU president in the past, had unsuccessfully contested from Bihar’s Begusarai seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Now with Aishe Ghosh, there are clear signs of a welcome change in what has really been at the root of the Left’s political and electoral decline in India — leaders who never fought an election shepherding the parties after getting their hands dirty in grassroots politics. The decline of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — the dominant party in the Left Front — has been phenomenal, from an impressive 43 MPs in the 2004 Lok Sabha to an embarrassing three seats in 2019. And all this happened under the watch of general secretaries like Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury. The fate of the CPI, now led by D. Raja, is hardly different. All of them started off as student leaders, but never chose to go to the hustings once they entered mainstream politics, instead picking the convenient Rajya Sabha route.
With Ghosh and Kanhaiya’s forays, things could be turning around for the Left. It is imperative that those who lead the CPM and the CPI have first-hand experience of electoral politics and understand realpolitik, particularly given the dismal state of the parties. If at all the Indian Left can be revived, it is possible only through a grounded leadership, one that is in sync with the current realities.
And contesting elections is the best way to achieve that. It is only when you fight an election that you will invest enough in reaching out to the voter personally. When you connect with voters, you will know what they want and need, and your hunger to win elections will make you adapt accordingly. This is essential for anybody leading a party, else there’s not much you will do other than give lofty sermons to those running the race while not being aware of the ground situation yourself.
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The decline of the Left
The Left Front in India has been in a free fall ever since it quit the UPA 1 government in 2008 over the signing of the India-US civil nuclear deal. The reasons for its decline are plenty — from anachronistic thinking to a dogmatic ideology, contempt for electoral politics and refusal to adapt to a changing electorate. But at the heart of this is a rudderless, completely disconnected leadership that knows little about how to manoeuvre the murky world of electoral politics.
Take the CPM for instance. The party was at its political peak in 2005, when Prakash Karat took over as general secretary. By 2014 and towards the end of Karat’s term, the party was down to just nine seats from the 43 it boasted of earlier. Not just nationally, but the CPM began losing its grip in states too. Mamata Banerjee ended the over three-decade-long rule of the Left Front in West Bengal in 2011.
Yechury taking over the reins in April 2015, following a heated internal battle during the Visakhapatnam Party Congress, was seen as a ray of hope. The leader was seen as pragmatic, modern and less out-of-touch than his predecessor. Sitaram Yechury was also more popular among journalists, many of whom were openly rooting for him against the much-older candidate S. Ramachandran Pillai, who is part of the Karat camp. Having attended and covered the Party Congress, I found the competitive spirit and killer instinct of the CPM’s top leadership on top octane — ironically far more pronounced than during any Lok Sabha or assembly election.
The CPM’s fortunes, however, did not quite change. The steep decline continued, and the party out-performed its disastrous 2014 Lok Sabha performance in the 2019 election. Things only got worse in the elections that followed. In the 2016 West Bengal polls, the CPM-led Left Front won only 33 seats, with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress winning 211 of the 293 seats it contested. In the 2017 Tripura election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swooped in to snatch one of the last bastions of the Left.
Under Harkishan Singh Surjeet, general secretary of CPM from 1992 to 2005, the story was quite different. The astute politician from Punjab knew Indian politics like the back of his hand, forging alliances and leading the CPM to national prominence. The less said about the fortunes of the CPI the better.
It isn’t just about winning elections. It is about the loss of relevance, marginalisation, and the deep rut that the Left parties find themselves in today.
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The leadership factor
Kanhaiya Kumar may have lost the election in Bihar, Aishe Ghosh may or may not win in the face of an aggressive Mamata Banerjee and a resurgent BJP in West Bengal, but what matters is that these young leaders have shown the courage and foresight to jump into the poll fray.
Not taking a cue from their predecessors and seniors, these young leaders have understood the importance of fighting an election — something endemic to democratic, electoral politics. This also helps infuse young blood into the party. In its draft political organisational report in 2015, the CPM had candidly admitted to the issue of ‘ageing’ and ‘not growing’, and of a ‘decline in mass base’. While the admission happened, the course correction did not. How could it, after all, with a leadership that has continued to remain in a cosy cocoon, more interested in fighting among itself and foolishly cribbing about ‘neo-liberal’ and ‘fascist’ aspects of Indian politics.
Aishe Ghosh and Kanhaiya Kumar may not turn out to be any different or more sensible, but at least a start has been made. The first step is for leaders of the Left parties’ student wings — AISA, AISF, SFI, etc. — to transition from student politics to fighting assembly/Lok Sabha elections, and not reducing themselves to fancy speech-givers whose only audience is the Left cabal on Twitter, if at all that. Look at how many student leaders of the ABVP (the student wing of the RSS) and the NSUI (of the Congress), end up joining the respective parties and contesting polls.
For any political party, a leadership that is connected to the ground and resonates with the voters is of utmost importance. Thus, Rahul Gandhi has led the Congress to a mere 52 seats in Lok Sabha and Narendra Modi has led the BJP to 303.
For the Left Front, its hope lies in adapting itself to a changed environment with the help of a young, flexible leadership. Kanhaiya Kumar and Aishe Ghosh have made a much-needed start, many others need to follow.
Views are personal.