Arrogance, corruption led to isolation in West Bengal, says Bardhan

A day after electoral debacle in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India felt that arrogance and corruption among the cadre and leaders at certain levels resulted in the Left Front becoming isolated from the people, and it was time to analyse the situation threadbare instead of finding ‘scapegoats'.

“The leadership got isolated from the people. At certain levels, arrogance and even corruption crept in among the cadres and leaders. They took the people for granted not realising that people are not passive and mere objects of politics but active makers of political destiny and the future,” CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan told The Hindu here on Saturday.

Citing the level of isolation, he said that even after the campaign was over, top leadership continued to claim “we are winning.” The CPI leader lamented that considering that the Left had active groups working at grass roots, if only the leadership had its hands on the pulse of the people, it could have gauged how deep the urge for a change was running among the people.

While arguing that rationale thinking need not always be behind the idea of a change that gripped the people, he said, however, alienation from the masses was one of the main causes for the Left Front making a series of “mistakes and sins of omission and commission.”

For instance, he sought to know why minorities in West Bengal were neglected in education, economic development and empowerment and, if that was the case, why were policies not announced to correct the same. “It was too late and people could not appreciate the full impact of these steps.”

Emphasising that the policy approach on industrialisation was “certainly correct,” the CPI leader said both in practice and tactics sober calculation was needed as to how much land was to be set aside for industry after talking to all stakeholders.

“In this matter, there has been a gross neglect but Singur and Nandigram are only symbols and not the causes behind whatever has happened. In my view, we must also ask the question why during more than three decades, the Left Front remained confined only to three States and not acquire any significant influence in the rest of the country,” Mr. Bardhan said. Introspection should also include how all the anti-Left forces could combine in a grand alliance against the Left. “I think what is needed is not to find scapegoats and indulge in blame game. For, such an approach only avoids deep reflection. We should rather undertake in-depth analysis of the causes,” he said.