Left out in Bengal

Indian Left is quite confusing. I don’t think they know where they stand on an issue. When I was going through the streets of Kolkata long ago I saw a statue of Stalin right in the middle of the road. I couldn’t believe it. For a while I didn’t know what to make of it. Why would somebody put up a statue of a person who killed 10 million of his own people? Do we put up statues of Idi Amin or Pol Pot?

When India was invaded by China in 1962 some of the guys from Left even thought it was a welcoming proposition. When the present UPA government under Manmohan Singh wanted to sign Nuclear Deal with USA, the Left opposed it. Its not that they are against the contents of the deal- they are just opposed to signing it with USA. A similar deal with a communist country is quite welcome to them. So, if it is with China, it is OK, but if it is with USA, it is not OK.

The present issue of Nandigram is quite confusing too. I don’t know the details of this issue. Usually I don’t write about an issue if I am NOT confident about it. I don’t know who is fighting whom. Aren’t Leftists supposed to fight against ‘capitalistic giants’ on behalf of ‘poor farmers’? So why is Buddhadeb, who won a landslide victory for Left, now on the other side of the fence here? Is Mamta Banerjee representing the Left here when she is fighting for the farmers? Are the Maoists fighting on the side of CPI workers or against them?

The following comment alone characterizes how Indian Left thinks. One of the leaders of the Left had this to say about Buddhadeb:

“…they would not have been angry if he had allotted land for cycle factories, and not for the automobile industry,”

So, the fight is not about the rights of the poor farmers. It’s not about the proper rehabilitation. It’s all about which industry Buddhadeb is promoting. If it was cycle industry, then it’s OK. If it is car industry, it is not OK.