Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 28, 2007
When an edifice built on control begins to
crumble, all sorts of peculiar creatures start emerging from the cracks. The
uninhibited exhibition of hooliganism witnessed on the streets of Central
Kolkata last Wednesday provided a vivid illustration of the CPI(M)'s slow
loss of control over a State it has ruled uninterrupted for 30 years. If the
"recapture" of Nandigram earlier this month was a desperate attempt
to restore the party's total dominance on every corner of rural society, the
State Government's decision to deport Taslima Nasreen from Kolkata was a panic-stricken
bid to regain the confidence of the regressive forces it has systematically
nurtured. The CPI(M), it would seem, is even prepared to accept a degree of
collateral damage -- in this case, the party's alienation from the Bengali
intelligentsia -- to meet the imperatives of political survival.
It's still too early to pass any judgement
over the efficacy of trying to turn the clock back without undertaking an
overhaul of the party's basic belief systems. What seems clear, however, is
that the Communist endeavour to appropriate the liberal Hindu imagination
has suffered a monumental setback. It was the Left's disproportionate influence
in the citadels of intellectual power -- the arts, academia and the media
-- which explained the unreal goodwill it enjoyed in national life. After
Nandigram and the expulsion of Taslima, the Left is increasingly conveying
the appearance of being a Stalin with halitosis.
The significance of the riotous anti-Taslima
outburst in Kolkata should not be underestimated. Ever since its wise theoreticians
identified Hindu communalism as the Enemy No 1 -- and that happened some 17
years ago -- the CPI(M) has pandered to the most regressive currents in Muslim
society.
The CPI(M) first preyed on Muslim fears of
an ascendant BJP -- Ayodhya and the Gujarat riots proved handy -- and then
tapped into the self-destructive Islamist resurgence under the convenient
garb of anti-Americanism. In West Bengal, it looked the other way as illegal
migrants effected a demographic transformation of the border districts and
even made Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee publicly express regret for
daring to suggest that many of the madarsas in the State could do with lessons
in modernity and patriotism. In other parts of India, it has entered into
partnership with the mullahs to glorify suicide bombers in Iraq and Israel
and simultaneously oppose any strategic partnership with the US. On the question
of Taslima, the CPI(M) has obliged the forces of darkness on each and every
count: It banned her latest book, it banned a Bengali journal that had defended
her right to be critical of her own religion and, on Thursday night, it expelled
her from Kolkata.
Can the cohabitation of godless Communists
and self-professed soldiers of god endure? For nearly two decades, Islamist
radicals have viewed its cosy relationship with the CPI(M) as a proverbial
"covenant of security". West Bengal now hosts extension counters
of frightening jihadi groups based in Bangladesh. The State administration
has looked the other way because of the tacit understanding that there would
be no subversion within the State.
The reason for the breakdown can be attributed
to stirrings within local Muslim society. There is a section of relatively
better-off Muslims which is anxious to assume political leadership roles in
West Bengal. The CPI(M) does not have the structure and the flexibility to
accommodate these aspirations. In its scheme of things, only card-holding
Comrades can be allowed decision-making authority. Simultaneously, the Muslim
leadership now believes it wields sufficient demographic clout to assume a
frontal role in public life on terms set by the community. Prior to Nandigram,
few had heard of Jamiat-i-Ulama Hind's Sadiqulla Chaudhury and before last
Wednesday the identity of those who called for Taslima's departure was unknown.
They have now demonstrated that they matter.
West Bengal politics is at an interesting
turn. The CPI(M) has hitherto exercised total control. Sectarian Muslim groups
now want a power-sharing arrangement commensurate with their numbers. Sixty
years after Bengal took a breather, sectarian politics is making a menacing
comeback.