The results of the assembly elections are out and they have gone as predicted by the exit polls. The Left Front has won West Bengal for the seventh time in a row, and has toppled the UDF in Kerala in style.
Questions: Will the Left which, while keeping the UPA government afloat, has stymied some of its market-friendly measures, now become more aggressive? Or, will it learn from Buddhadeb Dasgupta's success, and run with the market hares and hunt with the marxist hounds?
Will it allow the privatisation of airports to go on or will it put its foot down? Will it allow the petrol price hike or will it quietly buckle in? And is it such a good thing for a party which has just a tenth of the seats in Parliament to hold the rest of the country to ransom?
The Left has played a clever double-game like Deve Gowda. Deve Gowda opposed the metro under the Congress, but has allowed his son to go ahead. Likewise, the Left has opposed everything Chidambaram and his World Bank cronies have tried to do, like allowing FDI in retail, airport privatisation, etc. But when Buddha has gone ahead with the same ideas, the Left has quietly acquiesced. The Left’s only game plan is to increase its base, and they will do whatever they can in that new direction, in spite of the victories today.
Why do you have to see everything the left does negatively? If they weren’t around, Chidu & Co would have sold this country at very convenient EMIs to the World Bank and ADB. I hope they will play an even more productive role in the days and months to come. It may not be entirely for the good of the country, but at least there will be some check and balance.
The result of recent elections has made the cutting edge of the sickle sharper and the UPA govt can no longer buy peace with the comrades by breakfast diplomacy. Prakash Karat has already given notice of this during his press interaction. Obviously, the first effect will be the contemplated increase in the prices of petol/diesel and the domestic gas should be kept on hold. Of course, if the oil companies continue to suffer losses it is a minor irritant. Naturaly, this will make apart from the poor even the urban populace to veer round to the side of the comrades. In fact, the elections in West Bengal has already marked this shift. True, this may deepen the dichotomy in left’s ideology in which Buddhadev has shown definite leaning towards liberalisation and globalisation but as usual the comrades will argue that what happens in their backyard can not be equated with what UPA govt should follow. All together we are in interesting times.The dark shadow of red is firmly on UPA govt CMP consigned to the archives by the triumvarates of Manmohan Sing, Chidambaram and Ahluwalia will be retrieved from the archives to see the light of the day.