The Left’s failure to catch up with issues emphatically and meaningfully engage with a 21st century India as a stakeholder has damaged it enough

The title of the Marxist philosopher Slavoj Zizek’s book, First As Tragedy, Then As Farce (2009), captures the essence of the defeat of Leftist parties in the 17th Lok Sabha elections. Contrary to the hype and hullabaloo created by the Left, the locals at Begusarai believed from the very beginning that Kanhaiya Kumar’s defeat was a foregone conclusion. Zizek, dubbed as “the most dangerous philosopher in the West” by many, uses an apt anecdote about a peasant and his wife to illustrate the failures of 20th century Leftist politics. In the 15th century, when Russia was occupied by the Mongols, a peasant and his wife were walking down a dusty road in the countryside. A Mongol warrior appeared on his horse and told the peasant that he wanted his wife. He added further, “But since there is a lot of dust on the ground, you must ensure that I do not get dirty.” Once the soldier left after violating the woman, the peasant started laughing and jumped with joy. The wife was utterly shocked at the insensitiveness of the husband and rebuked him, “How could you be jumping with joy when I was brutally violated in your presence?” The farmer happily answered, “But I got him! His parts are covered with dust!”

The sad joke, the Marxist philosopher argues, captures the predicament of the Left today, which is delighted merely by defiling its opponents without any real gains for itself. Zizek argues further that Leftists have hitherto succeeded only in rubbing the noses of those in power whereas “the real point is to castrate them.” Despite the misogynistic tone of the anecdote, one is tempted to ask if today’s Left in India is undergoing a similar kind of crisis in its attempt to take down opponents? How else would one explain its total decimation from a high of 15 years ago?

The failure of the Left to negotiate and navigate between the concerns of the elite — regarding freedom of expression and tolerance — and the mundane concerns of the masses has cost it dearly. In the narratives of nationalism versus right to free speech and secularism, the masses identified with the former. It would be gross over-simplification to say that the grand narrative of national security post-Pulwama and Balakot overrode the issues of health, education, employment and climate change altogether. There exists no such binary between them as there were no easy choices and alternatives for voters.

Hence, they voted for a Government, which could at least fulfill their perceived nationalist aspirations. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) successfully contested the election around the aura of the Prime Minister; whereas its opponents remained obsessed with attacking and denigrating him and his party. And in the process, issues that affect day-to-day lives of the common man hardly got public attention; the ruling dispensation successfully made it a battle between Modi supporters and his opponents, thrusting a victimhood upon him which was not there in the first place. This trend was captured in a populist song used extensively by the BJP during the campaign — “Noon roti khayenge, Modiji ko jitayenge” (We shall survive on chapatti and salt but bring Modi back to power).

In the last past five years, India scored well on Ease of Doing Business index, whereas it continued to lag behind on the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Environmental Performance Index (EPI). Our abysmal performance on the last two indices, which take into factor a country’s performance in education, health and environment, barely became an issue during the elections. The Opposition failed to bring such issues to the public sphere except mentioning them in its manifesto mainly because if the performance of the current Government on these indicators remained dismal, the record of the Left, the Congress and their unnatural allies has not been praiseworthy either. Consequently, the electorate largely refused to perceive the Opposition and its allies as an alternative.

The history of post-independent India has been the history of disillusionment and disenchantment. First, people got disillusioned with the Nehruvian dream and Gandhian ideals of Ramrajya in the 1950s and 1960s. Several authors, including Phanishwar Nath Renu, Shrilal Shukla, Nagarjun, Girish Karnad and Harishankar Parsai took up the theme of disenchantment or mohbhang with the political establishment in their works.

This failure gave birth to the rise of regional and socialist forces led by Ram Manohar Lohia and Jayaprakash Narayan in the Hindi heartland. But Lohia’s and JP’s acolytes did irreparable damage to the cause of socialism in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where political dynasties were established. The fundamental tenets of socialism and secularism were used as a ruse and eventually subverted in every possible way to serve the interests of family. Certain castes and communities were objectified for years and used merely as tools to strengthen the vote-bank and water the family tree. The disillusionment was inevitable and in the offing. People of Bihar have eventually given their verdict. The Left and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) have been reduced to non-entities.

Examples from around the world show that a financial morass has pushed those sliding off the economic ladder to a radical opposite, in this case the Right. And while the Left did hold Bengal and Kerala for a while, it is its smug machinery and dependence on it that ironically made it drift away. That lack of empathy and the tendency to link every distress with a return electoral commitment are the reasons why the rural populace has begun looking for a new leadership. Both in politics and life one has to choose one’s allies as well as opponents wisely. The Left failed to do this, so did the Congress. The onus now lies on the triumphant BJP to rebuild the education, health and the environment sectors, which are in shambles today. History is evidence that the people of this country are not only quick to forgive and forget but also quick to be disillusioned.

(The writer teaches English at Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, University of Delhi)