Arrogance brought the Left down in Bengal: Bardhan

BENGAL BLUNDER: Communists are capable of correcting themselves and they will be back soon, says Bardhan.

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How do Communist leaders view the reversals their parties have had in West Bengal? What does the Left brigade think about its political future? These are the twin issues Karan Thapar discusses with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India AB Bardhan.

Karan Thapar: Let me start with a simple question. How devastating a blow have the Left parties suffered in Bengal as a result of the Lok Sabha elections in May and the recent by-elections this month?

AB Bardhan: They had a very serious setback, the entire Left movement; the CPI-M in the meanwhile had become the leading partner of the Left Front and the defeat was a grim reminder of what went wrong with the Left Front.

Karan Thapar: So it is not just a serious set back for the Left Front government, you are saying it’s a serious setback for the whole Left movement?

AB Bardhan: I am saying so. I also say that from what started as something against the Left Front government it is now becoming generally an anti-Left and anti-Communist movement. That is a dangerous trend.

Karan Thapar: How do you interpret what happened? Is this a vote for Mamata Banerjee or as you have suggested a moment ago is this a vote against the Left?

AB Bardhan: I don’t think that is an endorsement of Mamata Banerjee’s policies or programmes because they are not known to the people as yet and I am not sure she knows that herself. It is a vote against the Left, against the performance of the Left Front and against what they should not have done or what they have done.

Karan Thapar: When you bear in mind the fact that as recently as 2006, the four Left parties together got a 3/4th majority, then from that position to this in 3.5 years. It’s a dramatic if not precipitous fall?

AB Bardhan: What a fall indeed it is; I agree with you.

Karan Thapar: Are you embarrassed by it?

AB Bardhan: I am seriously concerned by it because such a fall shouldn’t occur. If the Left Front had functioned as a Left Front, if it had listened to the voice of the people… Some of its partners had not become and had not started thinking that they are for keeps and that they will last forever just because they had been there for three decades. When you start thinking like that you become undemocratic.

Karan Thapar: I want to talk about the reasons that help you understand this incredible sharp fall. Many people are today commenting that it looks increasingly unlikely that the Left parties can win in 2011. Is that some of your minister, Abdul Razak Moula to name one, has publicly said that we are being sent back to the Opposition benches and that’s the reality and we must recognise it. Do you believe that it is now looking difficult if not unlikely for the Left to win again in 2011?

AB Bardhan: No, I don’t want to be a prophet of doom. I think you will see that when the Left Front turns around, if mistakes are corrected and if there is a realisation that what went wrong needs to be sorted. If one realises that one’s lifestyle, behaviour with people and arrogance is given up then people will still be behind the Left because the Left had a program and the Left had done a lot of good things in West Bengal. So that is the reason they were there for three decades.

Karan Thapar: If the false can be put right, the Left can win again, that’s a bit tough isn’t it?

AB Bardhan: Yes it is. But I always believed that Communists are capable of correcting themselves.

Karan Thapar: Let’s talk about what has brought the Left parties to this dismal presence situation. One of the ministers of the Bengal government, the Minister of Panchayat or Rural Development has publicly begun to speak about what he calls nepotism and corruption. Has that played a role?

AB Bardhan: Yes, it has indeed played a role and that cannot be denied but then one must be clear about the dimensions of corruption. Corruption that is there in Karnataka or Andhra Pradesh or for what you see in the Centre, that is not the type of corruption which is there. Corruption has become more widespread particularly among the lower ranks and the middle ranks.

Karan Thapar: In Bengal?

AB Bardhan: Yes, that is what I think because power was exercised in West Bengal in all levels starting right from the Gram Panchayat.

Karan Thapar: So it is at the lower and the middle levels that corruption is most apparent and most widespread in Bengal?

AB Bardhan: Yes, but it is not the wholesale corruption you see.

Karan Thapar: But because this is at the lower and the middle level, it is directly visible to the people.

AB Bardhan: Yes, it is directly visible to the people. For instance, if I am corrupt and if I am constructing a building in Kolkata nobody will notice it, but if I do so in a village where people know what I was before and how I have a big house now then it is noticed. I am surprised that is not noticed by the leaders of the party.

Karan Thapar: So this corruption has been visible to the electorate, it is lent through resentment by the electorate but you are saying the leaders of the party have been blind to it?