Nothing left - The Telegraph
Editorial
()
7 May 1997
Title : Nothing left
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Telegraph
Date : May 7, 1997
The left is right only when it sees good sense. The problem is that the left
takes an inordinately long time to see good sense. Therefore, the decision of the
Indian left parties not to oppose the budget for 1997-98 is worthy of notice. The
left's rhetoric is still imbued with socialist ideas and ideals. But its political
praxis is nothing if not pragmatic. This alone explains the swings in the left's
position on the budget presented by Mr P Chidambaram. As upholders of socialism,
the left parties are hostile to the market friendly ideas embodied in Mr
Chidambaram's budget. For the left parties, especially for India's biggest left
party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), liberalization is synonymous with
selling the country to multinationals. They would like to go back to the
restrictions associated with the era of socialist planning. Thus their initial
reactions to the budget were hostile. In fact, the leftist trade unions had
called for a strike on April 2 to protest against the budget. Some important
members of the CPI(M) threatened to introduce cut motions to the budget. But these
reservations about the provisions of the budget were lost with the fall of Mr H.D.
Deve Gowda's government. The days of rhetoric quickly gave way to hard nosed
realism.
The retreat from hostility to the budget is dictated by realism. The left has
realized that to persevere with its criticism of the budget and to move amendments
in the Lok Sabha will be to rock Mr I.K. Gujral's ship of state which has just
been put out to sea. Elementary political calculations compel the left to muzzle
itself and forget its anachronistic ideas. This should not be difficult for the
left. In the state where it holds power and is therefore driven by political
realities rather than by ideological rhetoric, the left's economic policies are
far more market friendly than its firebrand pamphlets would care to admit. The
chief minister of West Bengal, Mr Jyoti Basu, is clear that without investments
from foreign and indigenous capitalists the state over which he has been ruling
for the last 20 years will resemble an industrial desert. Mr Basu is also clear
that the danger represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party cannot be
underestimated. Amendments to the budget, which is a principal way of undermining
the credibility of Mr Gujral's government, will only help the BJP in the long run.
These considerations have swayed the left. Relief at the left's decision has to
be balanced by the concern about the left's adolescent behaviour. Frequent
changes of mind and a divorce between precept and practice are characteristics of
a teenager's behaviour. Maturity demands a certain consistency; it also demands
the jettisoning of outmoded values. Till the left parties learn this lesson they
will strut and fret on the political stage and signify nothing. Such a
predicament was poignant at one time but with changes in the global context it is
now beneath contempt.
