Election 2019: Why Left?

Election 2019:  Why Left?

- Suresh Kodoor

What is the single most important task in the coming election for those who believe in a secular, democratic, liberal India? An absolute, unambiguous and resounding answer would be ‘Oust the Modi Government’.  The poisonous BJP has become all the more venomous under Modi –Shah tyranny in the last five years, threatening to destroy our very democracy itself. India never has witnessed such a regime before which has systematically destroyed every single democratic institution, including the judiciary and constitutional bodies, and has crossed all limits of political decency by spreading hatred among Indians and trying to expand its power base by dividing people. India has never been in deep danger as she find herself in today of losing her identity as a secular democratic liberal nation. India is first time ever debating the question ‘Will there be an election if the current regime comes to power once again’. People are alarmingly afraid that the answer is in negative and that is why there is an overwhelming urge all around to throw the regressive Modi regime out at the very first opportunity that is to come their way.

What is the role of the Left in the current political scheme of things? The Left of course may not be a force to reckon with in most part of the country as far as its ability to uproot BJP from power is concerned. Regional powers along with the Congress may be entrusted with the job (except in the Left strongholds).  Where the Left would play a crucial role though would be in deciding the character and content of the alternate regime. Left assumes strength and relevance not from its numbers, but with its high-value moral capital, a scarce commodity in the political market today.  Left will be a crucial factor in deciding whether the alternate government would resemble UPA1 or UPA2.  The key difference between UPA1 and 2 was undoubtedly the Left. It is the common minimum program coupled with the vigilant supervision affected by the Left through coordination committees what steered UPA1 straight and steady. It was in fact during the disastrous days of UPA2 when the Left value-add to UPA1 became more apparent, fully recognized and nostalgically (and regretfully) remembered.   

What makes Left the most relevant corrective force in the Indian polity is its unblemished track record of sticking to its well-defined ideological positions and its political method of aligning with programs rather than with parties or personae. For instance, it is the consistency in the stand against authoritarianism and fascist ultra-right ideologies that enabled the Left to be in the forefront of the struggles to safeguard democracy whenever democracy was under threat from the fascist elements.  Over time, the perpetrators had varied, the victims had changed, and the players even had flipped their roles. Obviously, the allies in the struggle too became different; at times even to the extent that the new allies being the erstwhile villains. As far as the Left is concerned, however, the fight was consistently against the fascist elements, steadfastly standing for safeguarding the idea of India as a secular, democratic, liberal republic.

Left undoubtedly will play a constructive role in ensuring a non-BJP government at the centre post 2019 election. And none would have any doubt that Congress will have to be a key constituent of such a coalition along with other secular and regional parties. And it would not be lost on anyone that Left will have a crucial role in defining the character of such a coalition government. An alternate regime without Left would be like a concrete pillar without iron bars, a lot of concrete poured in with no reinforcement. A concrete pillar may need more concrete and only a few steel bars. But it is these bars that would give the pillar its shape and the strength. Left would be the reinforcement providing the moral strength and shape that an alternate regime would require to clean all the dirt left behind by Modi and Co and to replace the corporate governance with people governance.

Left has a critical role to play today in ‘sanitising’ the seat of Power.  That is precisely why the Left is all the more relevant today as never before.

-          Suresh Kodoor