Marxism Fades?

By I Md Tanveer

In ancient era India was known as country of gold, snake and religion by the western people. It was gold which brought East India Company to India. They came for trade but ruled for centuries. In these era the India was ruled under the concept of capitalist economy late when it got independence Nehru atheist by ideology the first prime minister of India due to his love towards communism he included it in economy it addition to the existing capitalist economy. Hence India became the nation with mixed economy and the government allowed the existences of private sector along with the government sector of firms. The government reserved few sectors for as government firm left else for private governance.


As the government in center was led by congress party which was part of the freedom struggle and due to inclusion of capitalist and communist ideologies where already part of the government thus there was no need for alternate party. Despite of this factor communism marked its presence in many parts of country. Despite of spits and many offshoots birth from communist party, Communist party of India (Marxist) some manage to form government in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. In Kerala and Tripura Marxist play relay as the no government has ruled these state continuously. The people of Kerala and Tripura change government every 5 or 20 years.


But it was different in the case of West Bengal where the CPI(M) gained the majority in the Legislative Assembly of the State of West Bengal defeating the Congress (I) in 1977. Jyoti Basu became the chief minister of West Bengal, an office he held until his retirement in 2000. The CPI (M) held the majority in the West Bengal government continuously since 1977, but these was put to an end in 2011.Despite of getting a vote share of 41% more the Trinamool which got only 39% vote share Marxist lost its hub.



What went wrong?


A swing of minus 2% voters against the Marxist and a favor of 6% to TMC put an end to 34 years long Marxist government in west Bengal. Thus it seems clear that just a mere 4% of votes score an unprecedented change. Marxist through blowing the trumpet of communism and being a cadre based movement gained substantial growth specifically in states where Muslims and Christians has good number of vote share.


Despite of the chance of ruling constantly for six terms Marxist has done least for the people of WB. It is pathetic that WB is under the "alarming category" by Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council. 38.5% children in the state are underweight, 18.5% people are undernourished, 5.9% of children have died because of hunger.

Farmer affected by land acquisition in West Bengal

On the other hand Marxist WB government lost its credibility by kneeling down it communist ideology by welcoming barons and giant capitalist firm with red carpet. In 2004 when 5000 acres of land, mostly of Muslim farmers, was to be acquired for the some Industrial purpose in ‘Bhangad', on the outskirts of Kolkata. Later Marxist government gone to the far extent by purposing to acquire 38,873 acres of land in Nandigram in Midnapur districts to form a chemical hub. Majority of purposed land belonged to farmer which the used for paddy and rice cultivation. Tens of kilometers away, in Haripur, falling in the same district, there is also a nuclear power plant with a capacity of 10,000 MWs for which 40,000 acres of more land was purposed to be acquired.
With sixty percent and more population belonging to Muslim communities, the Nandigram area is known, not for communal riots but its contribution to the national freedom struggle with a martyrdom that is still remembered.

Women being lathi charged in Lalgarg

Worst thing happen later when Marxist the so called laborers cheer farmers delight acquired 997 acres of multi-crop land in Singur required for setting up a car factory to fulfilling the dream of Ratan Tata to manufacture the world's most cheapest car ‘Nano'. Consequently, almost the entire local population depends on agriculture with approximately 15000 making their livelihood directly from the land acquired. With the number of direct jobs to be created no more than about 1,000, many of which are expected to go to outsiders, the local populace feel understandably threatened for their livelihood. Later the plant was shifted to Gujarat after much havoc. Later on in the Lalgarh issue the farmers and tribals were labeled as Maoist and brutally murdered or driven out.

Marxism now has attained a new level through its land grabbing ideology. So the story in India today is not about a ruling Congress Party victory, but the complete electoral marginalization of the mainstream Left in India. Marxism in the current situation has not only lost West Bengal assembly election or in Kerala but also proved that Marxism ideology is mere failure because nothing has went wrong but the ideology has!