In today's scenario, this question is not out place. How relevant is the Left today? Looking outside of India, The Erstwhile Communists are flourishing only in China and Cuba, to count the few last bastions of Leftism. To say it is a dying concept would not be untrue.
The Left was dealt its death blow with the collapse of Communism in the Soviet Union, which led to its defeat in the Cold War. That was more than 20 years ago. Since then, Communism carries on in just a few small pockets other than China.
The Left parties in India too have their glory days behind them. The Left ruled West Bengal for more than a quarter of a century. It ended only with Mamata Banerjee's triumph over it in 2011. That state was gradually eroded by then. Industrial development had ceased. Infrastructure was in shambles and all pervasive gloom everywhere. This is what the Left, left after they left power there.
Anybody knows it will take years before the state of West Bengal can stand on its own feet again. The Left too has been thrown out of power in Kerala as well though the cases are different. Mamata has seemingly shut the door on the Left in Bengal, unlike Kerala, where it still is a force.
But the Left parties are staring at a bleak future. Their rather humiliating experience and the bad name they earned in the failed experiment of power -sharing in the UPA-I government is still fresh in memory. Led by an obstinate and backward looking party chief Prakash Karat, it is out of favour with voters as well, and one does not expect it to outperform itself in the coming general elections too. Rather, it is an also - ran party at these elections. It has been reduced to a kind of irrelevance.
The Left parties too lack a forward looking vision to sway the new generation. They only bank upon an anti - American stance, which won’t do for the youth. They are far too fascinated with the West. Also, the Left has failed to move with times. At a time when Narendra Modi is causing an earthquake of sorts, in the name of development and good governance, the Left hardly participates in the discourse.
A mere token attempt at secularism does not work. The voter of today wants and deserves a much more hands -on kind of governance, unlike the Communists, who are obsessed with Left ideology and little else.
The governance provided by Left in Kerala and West Bengal has exposed them to the charge of being anti - development anarchists who offer nothing but shrill rhetoric as the answer to the needs of millions of downtrodden whom they see as their vote banks. No party, whatever it chooses to believe in can escape if it has no achievements to show.
The Left caused massive unemployment in Bengal, causing huge migration to other states; precious talent flew out of the state leaving it at the receiving end of emerging technologies. Entire institutions were left in ruins, at the end of Left rule, which lasted 34 years in Bengal.
That Left is a spent force needs no reiterating. Its days are numbered. Only its functionaries can tell where the party is going. Or perhaps even they cannot tell.
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