Open Forum
New
Delhi, 27 September 2017
Leftist Legacy &
Influence:
AAM AADMI SHOULD BE
PRIORITY
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
The
recent elections to Delhi University, JNU and Hyderabad University bear
testimony to the fact that Left philosophy still holds sway among educated
students and youth. More so, in a country where politics is dominated by a
coterie whose interest in human welfare is debatable, the Leftists have
demonstrated time and again that they are truly wedded to the concerns of the
poor and impoverished sections of society.
True,
though their influence has been on the wane except perhaps in Kerala and
Tripura the educated sections of the young generation have great faith in Leftist
policies and programmes. In fact, if education, not literacy, reaches the far
corners of the country, the Left resurgence might become a reality.
This
is all the more apparent after the scam tainted UPA Government lost the
elections and the rightist BJP-led NDA came to power and started injecting its philosophical traits among students and youth.
Alongside, the Saffron brigade’s casteist bias and disregard for dalits have
come in for severe criticism.
Obviously,
this has not been liked by the youth. Coupled with this the reduction of grants
to colleges and universities have affected students in a big way. However, the
most important issue is the policies of the Government which is leading to lack
of employment and under-employment that economists have rightly termed as
‘jobless growth’.
Add
to this the recent killings and threats to intellectuals by fundamentalist
forces reflects there is an unwritten directive to toe the BJP-RSS line or face
the consequences. This situation has never occurred in the country.
Importantly,
all that is being propagated in the name of Hindutva is not, in any way,
highlighting true Hinduism, instead it is fomenting class and caste divide resulting
to violence and clashes across the country. In their bid to propagate Hindutva,
the Saffron Sangh has launched a full-fledged attack on independent minded
scholars and writers.
Undeniably,
this unhealthy trend in society has become a subject of much discussion and
debate country-wide whereby minorities are finding it difficult to maintain
their normal freedom. The Leftists and even rationalists are against the
systematic intellectual onslaught which curbs their free will to think and act the
way they want and manner.
However,
this is not to suggest that the rank and file is wedded to Leftist ideology.
But seeing the state of governance, pro-rich planning and rampant corruption
the educated class, specially the younger ones, are completely dissatisfied
with the present state of affairs. Certainly, this cannot be expected to
continue for long.
Pertinently,
today’s state of affairs is directly in conflict with Gandhian thinking. The
Father of the Nation who is highly regarded as a rightist philosopher yet his
ideas on social and economic issues have much in common with those propagated
by the Left.
Gandhi’s
emphasis on political decentralization has been implemented after decades but
economic decentralization has yet to become a reality. The functioning of the panchayats, as envisaged by him, is not
the same as what is prevalent nowadays namely a top-down approach. He was
against this. In fact, the left has all along been clamouring for more power to
panchayats and local bodies which
should have a decisive say in planning and development.
Interestingly,
not many are aware that MGNREGA which is hailed as an exemplary programme was
first mooted by the Leftists. Add to this, workers are now demanding wage
parity with that of the minimum wage rate in States. The Leftists, be they independent
thinkers and writers or belonging to a political Party have always been
advocating the need for focusing on the rural sector and upgrading the poor
social infrastructure across the country.
There
is no gainsaying, Leftists are normally humble people and free from all sorts
of corruption. None of them are directly
or indirectly connected with any business houses or involved in any scams. But
more than this, their concern in involving programmes for the lower segments of
society, including landless farmers, sharecroppers, very small traders and
businessmen merit attention.
Nevertheless,
there are several problems in the Left organizing itself in a big way. Their
plans and programmes normally go against the interests of the rich and the
powerful and, as such, they do not want the left to be a powerful force.
Another important obstacle to Left resurgence is that they are in general
identified with violence in society though the rightist forces are much more
violent and aggressive.
The
violence perpetrated by ultra left forces --- Maoists and Naxalites --- has
given Leftists a bad name. But this has been changing as the mainstream Left is
very much against all types of violence. These mainstream Parties do not
subscribe to cruelty and their movements are for justified demands, usually
highlighting the concerns of the economically weaker sections and low income
groups.
The
Left strategy of bringing about the necessary transformation in society is to
create pressure so as to change policies and programmes wherein they are geared
towards the rural sector and economically weaker sections. But, as is well
known, organizing the masses calls for resources which the Left are short of. But,
most intellectuals, comprising mainly university and college professors,
appreciate and subscribe to Leftist thinking.
In
sum, the real change that is needed is to bring about a transformation in their
focus, namely, grass-root problems which have been manifest in Leftist thinking.
This is imperative for India as it needs to grow fast and thereby uplifting the
conditions of the poor and oppressed. It is uncertain whether rightist forces ideology and programmes would be able to bring
about the transformation, consequently, one might have to turn to the Left for achieving
this in the coming years. ----- INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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