The Indian mainstream Left has been enjoying unprecedented influence in Delhi´s corridors of power since the results of the May 2004 general elections. With 63 members in the Lower House of the Parliament, the Left Front is a crucial ally of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, and holds the key to its survival. The Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India, key constituents of the Front, have not hesitated to exert this political strength to influence policy, despite supporting the government only from outside.
In their hour of unprecedented influence in national affairs, however, the mainline communists have caused intense consternation among diverse actors while being the target of harsh criticism. From the stock markets, which plummeted the day the present political alignment took shape, to the traditional Right that senses a weakening of its Hindutva project, the Left´s new-found power is greeted with opposition and worry. Meanwhile, self-proclaimed pragmatists as well as sections of the liberal intelligentsia and media view the CPM and CPI as being out of touch with international realities of American hegemony and unbridled economic globalisation. The Left´s caution against economic ´reforms´ in times when the IMF model of growth is regarded as sacred means that they are seen as the harbinger of a return to the ´dark´ days of ´failed´ state socialism.
The vilification, however, is more broad-based. And this time, it comes from within the Lai Parivar, the red fold. The ultra-left, represented by the Communist Party of India (Maoists), whose presence has been growing across east and south India, believe that the CPI and CPM are revisionist in character. These Naxalites allege that the ´official Left´ has given up revolutionary struggle, sold out to the ruling classes, and cannot claim to represent the interests of the poor and marginalised.
Bringing back sanity
With criticism of the Left occupying such a large share of the national public discourse, it is easy to see them as the force stalling India´s much-hallowed march towards superpower status. However, such an assumption is flawed, for it ignores the significant political contribution being made by the Lett.