A bloodless electoral revolution swept the state of West Bengal, decimating the Marxists who had ruled for 34 years without a break. The resounding victory of the Trinamul Congress-led alliance has shattered the Communist Party of India (Marxist).The defeat of the former chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, at the hands of a political greenhorn came as another shock, forcing him to contemplate stepping down from the politburo as well as from the central committee. This clearly indicates the measure of frustration that has enveloped the party and its leadership.

Never has the Left Front fallen on such difficult times.The tally of seats won by the CPI(M) fell from 176 to 40, less than those of the Congress, the junior ally of the TMC, which won 42. Most of the ministers tasted defeat, leaving the party with very little choice when it came to selecting the leader of the opposition. The pall of gloom brought in its wake reports of desertions from the party and its organizations.The districts that were known to be the CPI(M)’s fortresses tumbled like a pack of cards. Stray incidents of violence continued to take a toll of the lives of the party cadre, while the seizure of arms and other contraband items from party hideouts embarrassed law-enforcement agencies.

Interestingly, the CPI(M) general-secretary, Prakash Karat, put up a bold face and argued that electoral politics was just a part of the party’s agenda, and that there are other important preoccupations such as ideology, people’s rights and class struggle. What he tried to convey was that ideological moorings and purity were more important than electoral politics. Implicit in his argument was the insinuation that the poor showing of the party reflected inadequacies with regard to these preoccupations. The central leadership of the party refused to admit that the historic victory of the TMC-led alliance was in any way an indictment of the party and its ideology. This is a classic example of a mind still cast in the Stalinist mould.

Echoing Karat’s views, another politburo member went a step further, pre-empting any possibility of reforms in the party’s ideological stance and style of functioning at the forthcoming meeting of the central committee in Hyderabad. She said that the Left would endure without compromising on the tenets of class struggle and on championing the cause of the working class.

Karat and his party do not appear to be in a mood to introspect on the causes of the electoral drubbing. They nurse serious mental reservations about accepting the fact that Bengal’s election results reflect that a lot has gone wrong in the state in the past 34 years. For instance,the so-called class struggle has been weakened by the growing dimensions of change in social dynamics. The solidarity of the working class has been dented because of a sharp decline in Bengal’s industrial progress. The middle class and the youth are now taken in with consumerism and materialism.The high-handed manner in which farmlands were acquired resulted in farmers turning their backs on the party.

Besides dealing with these thorny issues, the CPI(M) has to apply its mind to a more fundamental problem — calibrating its strategy of using parliamentary democracy as an instrument to intensify class struggle. This has led to autocracy that has troubled people the most. The wanton killings, violence, intimidation, social boycott and destruction have vitiated the environment. The politics of fear has adversely affected growth and development, causing considerable strain on the state’s economy. This has stunted employment growth, alienating the youth further.

The CPI(M) will do well to take a hard look at these challenges. It will also have to address the more complex question of reconciling the party’s underlying contradictions when it comes to capturing political power through a democratic process. Fear has remained the most powerful weapon in the party’s arsenal, seriously undermining social values and democratic politics. The party has deployed thugs and satraps for the purpose of advancing its interests at all costs.The politics of fear, which has been employed to suppress the voice of dissent, has adversely affected every aspect of human life in West Bengal. It has made the Marxists forget that it is not the party but the people who are the makers of history.

Mamata Banerjee succeeded in making the people conscious of this ‘fear’ that was corroding their courage to stand up against the party’s hegemony. This awareness, reinforced by a free and fair election organized by the local administration under the directives of the Election Commission, helped the people to turn up in massive numbers and exercise their franchise. The peaceful polls ensured the triumph of freedom over fear.

The central committee will do well to bear in mind that the relevance of the Left is going to be tested in the coming days during the presidential election and the next Lok Sabha polls. The electoral arithmetic had tilted sharply against the Left after the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The electoral reversal in 2011 will deny the CPI(M) an opportunity to play an important role on the floor of Parliament or elsewhere. The party’s strength in the Rajya Sabha is going to get further depleted. The party will also get marginalized during the election of the president of India. Based on current estimates,the electoral prospects of the Left, given the fact that it is out of power in both West Bengal and Kerala, appear grim.

The mandate of the Bengal elections offers a challenge as well as an opportunity to the CPI(M) and its allies to embark on a course correction. The election results send out twin messages: Bengal has to change, and so do the Marxists. It will be in the interest of the central leadership to consider tempering ideological preoccupations to the exigencies of the situation on the ground.

The Marxists cannot be written off. They have enjoyed a solid vote bank over the decades in West Bengal. It will be prudent of the CPI(M) if it were to take steps to reconnect with the people. The time has come for the Marxists to try and win the hearts and minds of the people, demonstrating political maturity and summoning moral courage. For this, they could undertake the following measures: declare emphatically that the party accepts the mandate of the people with humility; beg forgiveness for all the things it had done that had hurt the populace; Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee should visit Mamata Banerjee with a bouquet of flowers and congratulate her on her momentous victory; the party should play the role of a responsible and constructive Opposition and treat the chief minister and its opponents with utmost courtesy; it should also direct its cadre to maintain peace and order and avoid confrontations even in the midst of provocations; it should do nothing to exacerbate the tension on the political front.

These gestures, together with reciprocal action from the ruling parties, will go a long way in bridging the political divide. The need of the hour is reconciliation across the social and political spectrums to put Bengal back on the road of progress and social amity.What is required is a conscious effort on the part of everyone to change and make a difference. The communist parties of the world have not remained ossified. They have transformed themselves to adjust to changing situations in their respective countries. If such a thing has taken place around the world, why should communist parties in India remain far behind? Change is,therefore, a must if the CPI(M)-led Left has to endure.