Where Party Has Withered Away

A standard ritual marks Madhu Mallick바카라�s start of day. At the crack of dawn, the 37-year-old lights the clay stove, boils milk with water and puts tea-leaves into it. That would ready the piping-hot brew for his morning customers who begin arriving at the shop. It바카라�s an open brick-and-cement structure at the far end of his mud hut in the police district of Jangipara in south-­central West Bengal. To be precise, on the side of the highway at the crossing of three villages: Mohanbati, Majhi­para and Gayapara, in Hooghly district. There, Madhu바카라�s Teashop, according its owner, 바카라�is a silent witness바카라� to the political change that swept through the state when, seven years ago, the mighty Communists faced defeat after ruling the state uninterruptedly for three-and-a-half decades.

Jangipara was one of those famed political constituencies during these long 34 years. Not once did it elect someone outside of the Left. Be the election for the civic body, state assembly or the country바카라�s Parliament, the winner was always from the CPI(M) or one of its political partners. 바카라�Yes, earlier these parts were dominated by the Communists,바카라� nods Mallick in agreement.

The local leaders and party workers, who sat on the wooden benches outside his stall, drank tea and chatted바카라�all of them belonged to the Red brigade. Then, as if overnight, on a muggy May day in 2011, as new chief minister Mamata Banerjee took oath in Calcutta, the entire area turned green: the colour of the now-ruling party, Trinamool Congress.

According to locals, since then, in these past seven years, anyone would be hard put to locate a single CPI(M) supporter, forget leader, cadre or worker.

After the Marxist party바카라�s rout in the 2011 elections, rival political party workers vengefully hunted down Left supporters and hounded them out of their homes and villages. Fearing such a fallout, Trinamool supremo and chief minister Mamata Banerjee had issued a statement to her party workers that their motto should be 바카라�bodol chai, bodla noi바카라� or 바카라�we want cha­nge, not vengeance바카라�. In spite of such caveats, CPI(M) cadres were beaten up, leaders chased out, their party바카라�s flags uprooted and offices vandalised. This prompted hundreds of the CPI(M) supporters to switch loyalties. Droves began getting absorbed into the Trinamool.

The CPI(M) office at Sitapur in Jangipa­ra바카라�s market area still stands testimony to such post-poll violence and vandalism. Its battered and broken windows and walls now serve as the backdrop of ad hoc stalls and shops run by rival political groups.

Some of them openly talk about the anger that triggered such violence.

It relates to a rot that had been nibbling away at the structure that had held the CPI(M) aloft for those 34 years. It바카라�s an irony that the voices from this 바카라�mob바카라� that attacked every symbol the CPI(M) stood for reveals: the people who had supposedly been keeping the party in power were actually seething with rage. That바카라�s because the party바카라�down to its district leaders, cadres and rank and file바카라�was holding the democratic process to ransom. It바카라�s immaterial whether or not members of the mob identified themselves with the new rulers.

바카라�We were never allowed to cast our vote,바카라� says a middle-ager, not keen to name himself. 바카라�Before any election, thugs would come to our villages, crash into houses and warn us of dire consequences if we even dared to go anywhere near the polling booths. Those who defied them were dealt with cruelly.바카라�

Indeed, allegations that the party was controlling elections through musclemen, thugs and goons started surfacing within a few years of the Communists coming to power and gradually gaining absolute power in the districts and rem­ote villages. It was like the dictatorship of Josef Stalin, says Deepak Maity from Makrar village in Tarakeswar that used to be a CPI(M) stronghold. Except that the Soviet dictator would 바카라�turn in his grave if he learned about the kind of activity that the comrades here were engaging in바카라�, adds the 53-year-old, who had fled from the Left to join the Trinamool in 1998 when the party was formed.

Explaining how the Left started getting corrupt, Maity recalls he was 12 years old when the CPI(M) came to power in the state 바카라�and I joined in my early twenties바카라�. After completing his bac­helor바카라�s degree in accountancy from a local college, he was hired to assist with the academic work by a Forward Bloc gram panchayat leader, who was not very literate. 바카라�At that time there was overwhelming support for the Left, which seemed to want to help the poor. I had joined the party for its ideology.바카라� The party assumed power in the state in 1977.

By the late 1980s and 바카라�90s, the party had, in the district and villages, 바카라�started getting infiltrated with rouge elements바카라�. Their job, Maity says, was to ensure that the party won elections. 바카라�They were paid goons and thugs working for the party. What they had to do was go from house to house before the elections and threaten people with dire consequences if they went to the booths or tried to cast their votes,바카라� he winds back. 바카라�Often they simply told people, 바카라�Don바카라�t take the trouble of going, we will do the needful바카라� or some such veiled threats. Those who protested were tortured. Often they were dragged out of their houses and beaten up. I didn바카라�t like the turn of events. Getting drift of my changing attitude, my former colleagues reprimanded me. Some hit me with sticks and whips...several times.바카라�

Maity notes the criminality started getting extended to other areas. 바카라�The thugs would taunt and harass the village girls and women. They would drink, play cards and, sitting on the roadside, pass lewd comments. They would extort money. They basically knew that they couldn바카라�t be touched because they belo­nged to the party,바카라� he says.

바카라�If the ground workers and cadres were doing this, the local leaders would look the other way. They were busy with their own set of crimes, including distributing government schemes, funds and monetary benefits only amongst their own family and relatives. If anyone objected, he could face the consequences. He could be dragged out of his house and hit mercilessly in front of his family. It did happen on many occasions. His fingers would be chopped off or other body parts mutilated for casting a vote that did not go to the Red. There was so much fear in the minds of people when it came to politics that no one dared openly speak about anything far less discuss or express their opinion. He could even be killed, which too has happened.바카라�

A former commissioner of police during the Left regime does concede that 바카라�horrors바카라� were committed. 바카라�But not all of it was reported because there was not so much media attention and the areas were often remote,바카라� he tells Outlook.

Basically, by when the party held power for over a decade, it had infiltrated every institution: police, education, administration and bureaucracy by filling these with party people. 바카라�It reduced the workforce of the state machinery to a group of people whose first and foremost response to doing any work was 바카라�no바카라�,바카라� remarks a former bureaucrat. 바카라�They couldn바카라�t be sacked so they wouldn바카라�t do much work. Whatever public service they did perform was only after demanding and receiving hefty bribes. The CPI(M) era totally des­troyed the work culture in the state.바카라�

The Left-led strikes by its workers바카라� union added to crippling the state바카라�s lab­our ethics. In fact, trade unionism, which is integral to the Communist ethos and had been one of the key factors in its identification with the poor peasants and working classes, alienated the urban vote. Traditional Congress supporters too were disillusioned, and that worked against their party바카라�s alliance with the CPI(M) alliance in the state.

This April, when the CPI(M) meets for its party congress in Hyderabad, one key debate could centre round whether it should reunite with the Congress as it had done during the UPA-I government. A section of the party, led by general secretary Sitaram Yechury, advocates it바카라�and has found support with most of Bengal CPI(M), which has argued that it is the only way to regain lost ground.

바카라�The CPI(M)바카라�s tie with the Congress prevented arch-rival Trinamool from getting together with that party,바카라� a CPI(M) insider tells Outlook. 바카라�When we withdrew support, they formed an alliance during the 2011 state elections, which rang the death knell for us.바카라�

The ground reality is not that simple. The 2011 defeat of the Left and the victory of Mamata Banerjee in that state election was not merely a matter of political rivals ganging up against the CPI(M). Even psephologists who studied the phenomenon of the debacle of the Left deny that the Communists could have won if the Trinamool and Congress didn바카라�t hold hands. Political analyst Biswanath Cha­kraborty notes elections are all about the numbers, which the CPI(M) did not have in 2011. 바카라�It had lost the vote of the people long back for the excesses it had committed, deliberately or inadvertently, during the 34 years of its continuous rule,바카라� he tells Outlook. 바카라�Mamata had provided the alternative and sold a dream. People bought it. She snatched the votes from all of the Left바카라�s traditional voters, including the urban intellectuals and rural masses. She would have won even without the support of the Congress.바카라�

Chakraborty argues that the Trinamool would have got absolute majority even if it went alone, given that  party바카라�s seat gain of 197 and the Left바카라�s loss of 171. This reasoning was vindicated in the state elections five years later, when Mamata emerged victorious despite anti-incumbency fuelled by alleged financial scams and corruption charges besides, most importantly, a Left-Congress alliance.

Clearly the joint numbers are not helping. And the public seems ready to erase the CPI(M) from memory, if Outlook바카라�s travel through the Left바카라�s strongest former bastions indicates anything. The Comm­unists ruled the Hooghly district area called Tarakeswar, never losing a state election for seven consecutive five-year terms from 1977 to 2011, when Mamata wrested it. Today, travelling through Tarakeswar, it is difficult to find any remnants of the Left바카라�s past. The flags fluttering in the wind are mostly that of the ruling Trinamool.

In Burdwan District, arguably the Left바카라�s strongest former support base, a group of young men바카라�all former CPI(M) cadres바카라�loiters in front of a shut-down party off­ice, and volunteers to 바카라�reveal바카라� the inside story about where the CPI(M) has vanished. 바카라�We haven바카라�t actually gone anywhere,바카라� says one of them conspiratorially. 바카라�We have simply changed colour.바카라�

There are many 바카라�categories of chameleons: some of us abandoned the party dir­ectly after getting offers from the riv­als, who lured us away with promises of better benefits like 바카라�If we come to power we will do such and such for you and your family바카라�. Others simply followed suit beca­use they wanted to move with the flow and not get left behind.바카라�

After all, there are 바카라�more opportunities바카라� when you are with the party in power, notes a resident. 바카라�Most wait for positive indicators that the party which is doing the poaching will definitely win the election. In fact, 바카라�I bel­ong to this group,바카라� he says, grinning.

The fourth group is one forced to join fearing for their lives but who are still with the CPI(M) in their heart. 바카라�Those who remained with the CPI(M) despite the threats did so because they are genuinely believers of the party ideology or are ashamed to be thought of as cowards for converting. But most of us don바카라�t have any shame admitting that we will go in whichever direction the wind blows.바카라�

As night approaches, Mallick stops fanning the embers, letting the fire burn itself out. Taking a sip from his teacup, a villager who is a regular at the shop, reveals in a whisper, 바카라�See, the Communists haven바카라�t actually vanished into thin air. They are still roaming around here except that they are wearing a different costume.바카라� He laughs a low, uncomfortable laugh. He is clearly wary of discussing politics.

Locals say politics is a volatile subject that can generate heated exchanges and violence. As he speaks, his companion, a man wrapped in a grey shawl, his head covered from the winter fog, peers at him with narrowed eyes, hurling him a disapproving glare. He dishes out a few coins from the pocket of his trousers, throws them on the counter. Both of them disappear through the forest route into the moonlight. Once he leaves, Madhu whispers, 바카라�They were both comrades. Now they work for the ruling party.바카라�

By Dola Mitra in Hooghly