Communism, Bengal and the CPI(M)

Leftism is not a bad ideology provided it is done in a pragmatic way, like Sweden does- without destroying its industry by provoking workers not to work. The main interest of any socialist is to see all his neighbours with bread and comfort, same as also not wanting to see an elite person with all the luxuries and priviledges- especially, if at the cost of the bread of the poor. It is a matter of social equity and societal concern for all. Leftism has answer for all this if it is practiced in an appropriate way. The countries of Latin America should be taken as case studies, where most of them are turning to the communist rule in recent times. In these times of Globalisation and blind Capitalistic approaches it is hard to argue for the socialist ideology, but I believe no phase is constant. Changes, with need and time, are bound to occur. In the case of the present political situation in Bengal, we cannot condemn socialism as such. We may contend that the CPM, having been in power for 35 years, has deviated from good governance. Still it is difficult to criticise the CPM just on this, as there were democratic elections which put them in power these many times. I find it hard to believe how the CPM has such strong base only in three states of the country- Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. Out of these Kerala is the state with the highest literacy and also the huge intellectual population in Bengal can never be doubted. Recently i came across a survey and found that when the CPM came to power in the early 70s, Bengal was one of the three poorest states of the nation. But now it has done a pretty commendable job, with the fact that the other two poorest states of that time, still stuck in that list. The wave against the ruling party in Bengal must not be seen as an anti socialism, anti communism wave. It is just the change people want from the ruling party-CPM. In fact, according to me, one of the main reasons for Mamata Banerjee to be on a stronger position now is because she seems more towards the communist ideology than the CPM itself. The very slogan of "Maa, Mati, Manush" seems socialist and has hit the hearts of the people. People want change from the rule of one party-which has deviated from its ideology- and criticising the very ideology by referring to that party is not correct- atleast in this case of Bengal.