Slow reformers they may be, but even the leftists cannot afford to remain completely unreformed in these times of change. It is another matter that they can still try to keep up pretences. It should not be surprising, therefore, that despite their public posturings, the leftists seem to be shifting a great deal from their earlier position on pension reforms. They still have differences with the United Progressive Alliance government on the nature of the reforms and on the details of investment of the pension funds. That is why the government failed to introduce a bill on pension reforms during the current session of parliament. This, despite the opinion of the Union finance minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, that an “unfounded pension system is unmitigated disaster”. His view is shared by Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who knows how disastrous it can be for a government to carry the ever-mounting pension liabilities. It now seems that West Bengal’s chief minister had had a partial success in persuading his comrades to see reason and to relent on their opposition to pension reforms. Shifting from its earlier opposition to these reforms in any form, the left has now agreed to the pension funds being invested only by public sector fund managers. That the left has substantially changed its position is evident from the fact that it now favours different forms of investments of the funds for different categories of employees. It now wants the funds of Group C and D employees to be invested only in government securities and public sector bonds. These investments, according to the left, would be more secure and risk-free than the funds of Group A and B employees which may be invested also in the stock market.

The left’s logic smacks of its old love of the public sector and its distrust of the private sector. It also reflects a strange refusal to come to terms with the changing reality. This is clearly bad economics; but it is increasingly proving to be incorrect politics as well. But, above all, the left’s slow and unsure adjustment to the world of reforms shows the tensions within itself. If Mr Bhattacharjee knows how important it is to reform the pension system, he is also aware of the opposition to it by the trade union wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The same rifts have stopped the left from whole-heartedly supporting disinvestments of government shares in public sector companies. It is much the same story with the left’s ambivalence over labour reforms or foreign direct investment.

But the left today is in a position to change the government’s ways, for better or for worse. By virtue of its numbers in parliament and because of its crucial support to the UPA government, it is no longer just a ginger group. The faster the left wakes up to its new responsibility, the better it will be for India’s economic reforms.