Constitutional values, public decency, and negotiated resolution of conflicts

Blood On Their Hands Praful Bidwai times of india 20 Nov 2007 Bhattacharjee didn’t speak like a responsible, democratically elected CM, but like a party apparatchik who reposes greater faith in its cadres and musclemen than in the rule of law.

The latest episode represents one of the darkest chapters in the history of the Indian Left. It has tarnished the Left’s, particularly the CPM’s, image as one of the few principled components of our political spectrum guided by an ideology and programme, which upholds constitutional values, public decency, and negotiated resolution of conflicts, represents the poor, and is an asset to democracy. Nandigram showed that the CPM can unleash, for entirely sectarian reasons, violence against farmers and other working people, in whose name it speaks — and from whom it derives its very rationale...

This couldn’t have happened without the state’s complicity, indeed without the party suborning the state. This has disturbing implications. Any defence of such actions greatly weakens the liberal-secular-democratic argument against the communal Right, articulated ably by the Left too, that interference by political parties and their affiliates (e.g. the RSS) with the state’s functions gravely undermines democracy. However, several CPM members and supporters, including some distinguished academics, have turned a blind eye to this while rushing to the party’s defence — just when they should be counselling critical introspection. Their argument rests on presenting CPM cadres as Nandigram’s principal victims, and highlighting “infiltration” by Maoists, assisted by Trinamul Congress...

Nandigram exposes the rot that has set into the West Bengal CPM in the form of criminalisation, pro-rich policies, corruption, reliance on muscle power, and arrogant disdain towards its own allies — the CPI, Forward Bloc and RSP. The three now say the CPM alone bears “responsibility” for the Nandigram violence and must rethink its policies. Their plea can only work if they quit the cabinet while remaining in the Left Front. (The writer is a political commentator.) 2:01 PM