The election season is on in America, Bihar and then West Bengal.
It is not so that Tejaswi led Mahagathbandhan (MGB) will win because Biden has won. There is no surety that if Tejashwi wins, the Left will lead in any seat. Even if the Left does not get a single seat, Tejashwi can form the government. The question then is what will the left parties do? And what if the MGB loses? Again, Tejashwi may win and kick the left out, then?
19+6+4 = 29 seats have been allotted in three Left parties, a negligible number in front of total seats. Therefore, it is unnecessary to say separately what is its role in changing the government. So, the ‘Left’s who are dreaming of a change of government in Bihar, their dream is much more dependent on Yadav’s confidence than their self-confidence. It is very clear. And if there is no dream of a change of government, then why to support the Mahagathbandhan?
Although 29 seats are scarce, in the current context of leftist politics, that is enough if parliamentary democracy is adopted from a Leninist point of view. The question is why was this election not used in that way by forming a left unity with these 29 seats?
The basis of any kind of politics is its schooling system and political grooming. And capitalism has swallowed up the whole of this mainstream political grooming. Right-wing ideologies have sensitively influenced the politics of mainstream left parties on revolutionary politics, elections, women’s rights, economics, nationalism, and so on in a long term. And as a result, today there is a flurry of a “need of a new leader”, “change” etc. in mainstream left parties, but in the end, they ought to dream with their heads on Yadav’s shoulder.
Leftist politics is not just the politics of changing the government or getting a seat, it is the politics of changing society and production system, the politics of total annihilation of exploitation – the right-wingers are expected to try to hide this fact, but it is not just unexpected from ‘Left-named’ parties, but also a curse on the left-wing politics. The result of that curse is and will be suffered by the entire working class.
One of the ultimate consequences of policy deviations and blindness to those deviated policies is to abandon the class struggle and to dream of #ekushepalabodol in West Bengal relying only on NGO tactics, and on Congress as well. But the curse doesn’t end here. The blueprint of the sweeping changes that the BJP has brought to the political landscape of West Bengal is still not clear to the dreamers of ‘Palabodol’.
When mainstream left politics has drawn its own boundaries in an annual long march and a general strike and followed the path of NGO policy, the BJP and its workers’ organisations have swallowed up the politics of movement by identifying the state government as the only enemy.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has entered the politics of the trade union movement on the labour issues and also organised movements, rallies on the issue of unemployment. And it was easy for them as they are in opposition. They put all the blame on the TMC government. So, it is clear that BJP is using Leftist demands and getting mass support whereas mainstream left parties have left the battleground.
Today’s ‘youth left’ politicians, who have deviated from the class in the name of ‘progressiveness’, have lost the ability to understand working-class people’s thoughts and more precisely working-class philosophy by pushing people away by calling them idiots, fools, chaddi etc. It has also had a huge impact on student politics, a detailed discussion of which is unnecessary here.
Now the point is, the way the mainstream left parties have somehow managed to survive in the existing system and protect it, there will be nothing but a big zero in the near future.
Now you may be happy with the victory of Biden, may say red salute to Lalu and Tejaswi, may feed people for 6 more months, may hide the global economic crisis behind COVID-19 or you will take the way to overthrow the existing system, that’s all up to you. Think about it, because we have very little time and a lot to do.