[Reader-list] Left Debacle In Kerala and Elsewhere

[Venugopalan K M]

I would suggest that in Kerala, it was not just the Lavlin case.
The fundamental mistake occurred when the Left lost touch with the masses.
The crudely  self righteous sermons in favour  of what they called
'Development' and the criminal insensitivity toward the plights of victims
of a neo-liberal political agenda were never taken without a pinch of salt.
This seems true not just of those directly affected by new forms of
deprivation but also others, who expected  sort of care for human rights and
natural justice on such things esp from a Left set up. While these
criticisms were totally ignored by the Party, the Kerala leadership( with
the backing of the Polit Bureau)  even rubbished them as a handiwork of some
imagined 'bourgeois media syndicate'.
Kerala saw an entire Party  being mobilised to defend Pinarayi, in the
context of clear accusation of huge misappropriation of public funds and
charges of corruption (Lavline). Thousands of landless people, mainly
dalits,  occupying a big rubber estate land in Chengara (Pathanamthitta
dist) demanding it to be distributed to them was seen by the CPI(M) less a
land issue than a 'conspiracy' by   (foreign funded) NGOs and psuedo
intellectuals. Direct assaults were unleashed (ostensibly in the name of
protecting the interests of rubber tapping workers unions, and by goondas
masquerading as CITU activists) against poor dalits including women and
children. An honourable negotiated  settlement on the Chengara land struggle
was never attempted and is still pending. By and large, the media has been
sympathetic to this issue though the CPI(M) showed it as yet another proof
of 'meadia conspiracy'. Perhaps many of us we could even visualize the
worst- some thing like Nandigram developing. Apparently thanks to the
intervention by an enlightened section within and outside the Left set up,
that didn't happen.
In relation to the electoral debacle of the CPI(M) and the Left, I like to
quote a statement in an analysis by the CPI(ML) (Liberation):
''...The epicentre of the anti-CPI(M) political earthquake lies
squarely in the Singur-Nandigram seismic zone where the CPI(M) has
been punished for its arrogant and coercive attitude to the peasantry
and the intelligentsia, for its ruthless attempt to implement the same
economic policies that it claims to have been opposing all along.."

Though development  like Nandigram did not happen here, land related issues
in many places where  people face threats of imminent eviction and brutal
state violence are still continuing in Kerala. These have to do with issues
connected with anti poor ,neo-liberal agenda often aiding Corporate land
grabbings.


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http://venukm.blogspot.com/