How the Communists lovingly ruined West Bengal

Kolkata: In case you are wondering if the TMC is damaging Bengali integrity, then you have not met Gabbar Singh yet. The CPI (M) which ran the show for more than three decades is the villain par compare. Albeit with a deserving caveat that the bright present generation promises to be an exception.

When barrister Jyoti Basu assumed command in 1977, I was possibly less than six years old. But yet blessed with sufficient residual recollection in terms of the anticipation. Here was a genuine people's party setting up a promising future, with leaders who walked the talk. That it was a horrendous fallacy, from an educated urban perspective, was made plainly apparent much later.

But before launching a missile attack, it is necessary to share a few plaudits. Nobody can deny that the early decade led to definite rural goodies, and land reforms implemented with sincere gusto. Also, in terms of pureplay personal integrity, many were stalwarts, whatever their organisational frailties.

This however did not overwhelm the inherent hypocrisy and lack of developmental intent which marked or rather marred their tenure. The CM himself was, as per reliable hearsay, a connoisseur of the finest Scottish produce which was an ill-kept secret. His family benefitted greatly from advantages and the son became quite a poster boy for disagreeing media. But let's now move to larger matters.

The trade union militancy of the era ensured that no decent enterprise could survive in the state unless they were blatant groupies. RP Goenka, Bijon Nag, and a few select peers qualified in this regard, thus bagging the lucrative CESC ownership stakes. While genuine entrepreneurs were compelled to move elsewhere, as were the corporations that thrived in the city.

Quite like the scorecard of a 1990s Indian batting lineup in Australia, folks like ICI, HUL, Brittania, and others receded to the more lucrative pavilions. While the dhoti-brandishing disciples of Karl and Vladimir reigned with decadent diatribes, so typical of Communists globally.

The biggest damage, way more significant than the load-shedding et al, was the demolition of educated youth morale. Having lived through this era I know how folks were led to believe that there is no future in this disheveled state and salvation lay elsewhere. So everybody dashed to the American Centre or at least booked tickets on the nearest express train to escape from oblivion. Those left behind were destined for Kala Pani in their own backyard, but the Communists did not really care. In their fraudulent universe of anecdotal achievements, the future was not relevant.

This shameless destruction was cloaked in romance, the calling card of the party blending beautifully with the closets of the Bengali mindset. Liberation, as dictated by Che Guevera, was an awesome destination, and every symbolic evidence was much revered. Music was a willing ally and the notes of our conscious beings made to agree with the tones of the purported uprising. Equality, the fake promise, is rendered with melodious care.

In a matter of years, genuine capital fled from the state as did the plethora of global airlines, destroying Calcutta's pioneering aviation stature. Access to the West was at the mercy of Aeroflot, JAT, LOT, Balkan, and such Tupolev felonies. We have not yet recovered from this flight of flight.

It was easy to blame the Centre but those who lived the era easily recognize the real foes, dhoti-clad ideologues pursuing a miserable destination. Intellectual respect was earned and squandered with comparable felicity, every time Jyoti Basu donned a deeply capitalistic Safari Suit and headed off to his London vacation, the Bar At Law resurfaced with colonial gratitude.

Liberalization was a wake-up call for these staccato beings, very comfortable with the status quo like their East European counterparts. Suddenly, stuff was happening in the country and the word was entering the state, not just from white collars but blue as well.

 It is a living truth that the domestic staff cadre of Delhi, Bombay, and elsewhere comes from Bengal, and the affluence they generate in villages was significant. The Commies were cracking and now there was no place to hide.

Mamata Banerjee's ascendancy was clearly due to the disgust folks felt about these retrograde rulers, especially in their desperate resurgent avatar. After ruining enterprise for decades, they suddenly became evangelists of reform, as political survival makes no mistake.

MOUs were signed with strange corporate groups with even stranger antecedents and a fake attempt to show growth was observed. Nothing really happened as credibility was zero and in a karmic twist, the rural vote banks felt cheated, as the up keepers of people's rights suddenly became profit mongers in the guise of employment generation. The lies were brutally exposed and the fallout was clear at the polls.

In sum, there are two things I need to stress while assessing the impact of the Communists in Bengal, unlike Kerala. Firstly, the shameless intellectual hypocrisy in loving parallel lives, the fan of the poor sipping Reisling in London. Secondly, in builds a negative perception about the state which is still not wiped out in full. The attitude of labour, pampered by Communists, curates a narrative that the natives are not interested in work. This is serious damage and not a passing reference.

Modern Communists in the state truthfully come with much promise, denied the hubris of Jyoti Basu and the hapless Buddha Babu, the latter coming to the crease facing an impossible asking rate. Like the Pink Tide in Latin America, I wish them luck, but nobody is likely to take them seriously going forward.

Communism, IMHO, works better as a personal belief system than a political force and the evidence is stark and abundant. West Bengal and its beacon Calcutta, have been decimated by the Left Front Government, there is no argument on this matter. Whatever the flaws of the present regime, the criminal GOAT will still be the pristine white dhoti sewn with idealistic garbage. Which flopped miserably in most parts of civilisation and unhappily, tormented us as well.

John Reed, in his book on the Soviet Revolution, stated clearly that he had seen that future and it works. The universe and not just Calcutta is witness that the future was never workable, as the leaders were just not interested.