New hope emerges for Leftist resurgence

The recent elections to Delhi University, JNU and Hyderabad University bear testimony to the fact that Left philosophy still holds sway among educated students and youth. More so, in a country where politics is dominated by a coterie whose interest in human welfare is debatable, the Leftists have demonstrated time and again that they are truly wedded to the concerns of the poor and impoverished sections of society.

True, though their influence has been on the wane except perhaps in Kerala and Tripura, the educated sections of the young generation have great faith in Leftist policies and programmes. In fact, if education, not literacy, reaches the far corners of the country, the Left resurgence might become a reality.

This is all the more apparent after the scam-tainted UPA government lost the elections and the rightist BJP-led NDA came to power and started injecting its philosophical traits among students and youth. Alongside, the Saffron brigade’s casteist bias and disregard for dalits have come in for severe criticism.

Obviously, this has not been liked by the youth. Coupled with this the reduction of grants to colleges and universities has affected students in a big way. However, the most important issue is the policies of the government which is leading to lack of employment and under-employment that economists have rightly termed as ‘jobless growth’.

Add to this the recent killings and threats to intellectuals by fundamentalist forces reflect that there is an unwritten directive to toe the BJP-RSS line or face the consequences. This situation has never occurred in the country. The Leftists and even rationalists are against the systematic intellectual onslaught which curbs their free will to think and act the way they want and manner.

However, this is not to suggest that the rank and file is wedded to Leftist ideology. But seeing the state of governance, pro-rich planning and rampant corruption, the educated class, specially the younger ones, are completely dissatisfied with the present state of affairs. Certainly, this cannot be expected to continue for long.

Pertinently, today’s state of affairs is directly in conflict with Gandhian thinking. The Father of the Nation who is highly regarded as a rightist philosopher yet his ideas on social and economic issues have much in common with those propagated by the Left. Gandhi’s emphasis on political decentralisation has been implemented after decades but economic decentralisation has yet to become a reality.

The functioning of the panchayats, as envisaged by him, is not the same as what is prevalent nowadays namely a top-down approach. He was against this. In fact, the Left has all along been clamouring for more power to panchayats and local bodies which should have a decisive say in planning and development.

Interestingly, not many are aware that MGNREGA, which is hailed as an exemplary programme, was first mooted by the Leftists. Add to this, workers are now demanding wage parity with that of the minimum wage rate in States. The Leftists, be they independent thinkers and writers or belonging to apolitical party, have always been advocating the need for focusing on the rural sector and upgrading the poor social infrastructure across the country.

Nevertheless, there are several problems in the Left organising itself in a big way. Their plans and programmes normally go against the interests of the rich and the powerful and, as such, they do not want the left to be a powerful force. Another important obstacle to Left resurgence is that they are in general identified with violence in society though the rightist forces are much more violent and aggressive.

The Left strategy of bringing about the necessary transformation in society is to create pressure so as to change policies and programmes wherein they are geared towards the rural sector and economically weaker sections. But, as is well known, organising the masses calls for resources which the Left are short of. But, most intellectuals, comprising mainly university and college professors, appreciate and subscribe to Leftist thinking.

It is uncertain whether rightist forces ideology and programmes would be able to bring about the transformation, consequently, one might have to turn to the Left for achieving this in the coming years.

By Dhurjati Mukherjee