Governance is too important a matter to be left only to the ruling party. It is now accepted that a major reason for the failure of governance in erstwhile communist countries was the absence of democratic opposition. There is thus a flip side to the massive victory of the Left Front in Bengal. The drastic reduction of the opposition?s space in the state assembly can undermine the quality of both politics and governance. Worse, it can make the rulers insensitive to dissent and debate both within and outside the legislature. The society at large will be poorer if the government?s policy and work are not debated and scrutinized. The absence of a strong opposition has put the left in Bengal in the same position as Japan?s long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party. The opposition to the LDP?s ? and its government?s ? policies comes from within the party. But it would be unrealistic to expect Bengal?s communists to follow the Japanese example. Leftists in India value the so-called party discipline and consensus much more than real debates. It should be some consolation for the opposition parties that Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has promised to take them into confidence irrespective of their strength in the assembly. That promise may not mean much unless the left, as a whole, shows the same spirit.

However, the opposition too has to decide how it plays its role. After all, this is not the first time that the opposition has been reduced in size. In 1987 and 1991, the opposition space in the state assembly was even smaller. So it is not so much the size as the strategy that should be the concern for opposition parties such as the Trinamool Congress and the Congress. Even a small number of opposition members can disrupt the proceedings of the assembly. It does not take a large crowd to create disturbances in the street. On the other hand, the strength of a dissenting argument has nothing to do with numbers. A well-argued opposition case can mould public opinion and force the government to mend its ways. If the opposition had succeeded in stalling some government moves in the last assembly, such as the pre-litigation reconciliation bill, better known as the shalishi bill, it was not because of its numbers. Ms Mamata Banerjee should now know that street shows at regular intervals do not add up to a strategy. An arrogant government is as ominous for democracy as an unthinking opposition.