Caught in a web of inconsistencies created by their own ideology, the Left, always disgruntled is also a discredited lot today.
(Representative image)
When union minister Piyush Goel recently said, “We now realise that the so-called farmer agitation hardly remains a farmer agitation. It is almost infiltrated by Leftists and Maoist elements…,” his purpose was to completely undermine the legitimacy of the ongoing farmer’s protest. This is how all agitations the nation has seen over the last year starting with the JNU students protests, to Shaheen Bagh, have been rubbished. They have been named as Leftists, Maoist and Naxal driven agendas.
So what is leftist, and why has the word and the ideology it stands for, used today to negate the genuity of any movement? Why is it that an ideology which once stood for welfare of the masses is today perceived as one which undermines the interest and welfare of the underprivileged. Why are the ‘Leftists’ today bundled up as a clique of educated disgruntled class who will willy-nilly oppose any move made by the government?
Left ideology
Leftists are those who believe in social justice and want to bring it about through government policies that favour the underprivileged versus the privileged. In India when landowners and upper castes were oppressing the backward classes, it were the protests marked by Communists which expressed the plight of the underprivileged through songs, dramas based on themes of land rights, social exclusion and oppression. Naxals, their ideological partners often indulged in violence to convey their message. Historically Left has associated with movements like republicanism, socialism, communism, civil rights, feminists, anti-war and even environmental issues.
The leftists got their political chops by reading and espousing the philosophy of Karl Marx. In India they formed a group of mainly foreign educated people, writers, poets and artists who many times filled up the posts of professors at government run universities. JNU in New Delhi especially is identified by this breed of academicians. Though times have changed since independence and many of the evils of oppressions that possessed the society, like the class system and the uneven wealth distribution have diminished to some extent, yet these educators with their Left leanings continue to hold onto the utopian Marxist ideals.
To be fair to them, there were many among the communists who gave up all their wealth for the struggle and principles they lived for and propagated. In the post-Independence era they fought against the dynasty politics, corruption, oppression. And they weren’t selective. Their fights and struggles didn’t segregate. They weren’t narrow targeting. They reached out to all to take up the pressing causes. Gradually as democracy stabilised, the successive governments brought in legislations and made penal provisions to address atrocities and oppression. Eventually the globalisation, liberalisation and growing urbanisation brought a multitude of changes in the society in terms of living and thinking. The younger generations didn’t care about divergent castes and communities and definitely not in oppression.
Winds of change
These winds of change did not create much of a rustle among the communist. They continued to live in their cocoons and continued to get distanced from the mainstream. Unwilling to accept the way the real world operates, they remained too theoretical and would find faults with every new idea for growth and development. Oppose, oppose and oppose became their theme as they failed to reinvent their movement to make it compatible with the current scenario. In their zeal for taking up cudgels against the government their arguments lost logic and became inconsistent. Left would oppose all development be it infrastructure, power plants or mining but would criticise the government for not providing equality, electricity or employment.
Over a period the relevance of ‘commies’ and their ideologies got confined to few labour unions. A large number of workforce and even the farmers slipped out of their hold. The Left was now only interacting with journalists and editors. They got tagged as ‘Elite’ and were described as liberal, intellectual and secular-The words which have found currency in the last decade as the right wing’s influence grew in Indian polity.
The right wing abhors the left leaning professors educated in Britain, Europe or America, who fill the Indian universities. In the opinion of the right wing, these professors carry the influence of socialism and welfarism of European revolutions. They have little connect with ancient Indian philosophy or culture and have managed to condition the students to this Left of Centre thinking. Their students find a certain romanticism in anything that is anti-state. Naxals, Kashmir issue, North-East turmoil are all causes worthy of their attention and support.
Rise of the right wing
Over the years the right wingers, side-lined for long, were beginning to register themselves in universities. Their belief was that India a land of milk and honey had been looted and destroyed by Mughals and British and it was time to make it glorious once again. They elicited yawns and derision from the ‘elite class’ and were even called lunatics. Gradually some right wing leaders like Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari began to change the narrative as they spoke of good governance and a need to redefine secularism and advocated the policy of non-appeasement. The Shilaniyas at Ayodhya Ram Mandir, Babri Masjid demolition and BJP rule at the centre provided the much required shot in the arm to this narrative. The Indian middle class had seen a tremendous rise in incomes and socialist policies were not finding favours with them. The anti-corruption movement started by Anna Hazare underlined the poor governance in 20012 and soon social media was inundated with posts that derided the left and socialists as “liberal, sickular, Communist, anti-nationals.”
What has pulled down the leftist the world over is that they could not reinvent or calibrate themselves with the way economies began to work. In today’s day and age physical resources like land and capital are not the focal point for creation of surplus. Digital marketing, online stores, outsourcing of work, investment banks did not exist in the times of Karl Marx. Though educated, the intellectual leftist could not reinterpret Marx to fit with modern times. In fact they savour and enjoy all the benefits of a capitalist system yet continue to oppose it, giving rise to a class which has come to be known as ‘Champagne socialist’.
This is why they are considered anachronistic and not with the times. Their only utility now is that they manage to raise anti-establishment slogans, and in a democracy, help in keeping the government on toes.
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