Here are five important reasons why:
Party & ideology over nation
Most will remember the visceral and unflinching manner in which Prakash Karat and his fellow comrades opposed the nuclear deal between India and the United States. During the official visit of George Bush to India, they even forgot courtesy while abusing and heckling him (one wonders how many people would have been killed in police firing if demonstrators had abused and heckled Chinse Supremo Hu Jintao during a hypothetical state visit to Kolkata?) But not many will remember that Marxists like Basu always blamed India more than China for the 1962 debacle. Just consider this: The CPI, mentored by the Soviet Union, supported the Emergency because Indira’s India was a Soviet ally; the CPI(M) opposed it vehemently because China was not very fond of Indira’s India. Of course, both supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and kept quiet on the Chinese invasion of fellow Marxist state Vietnam in 1979. Under Jyoti Basu, West Bengal always gave more importance to ideology over public interest. Anything that the United States did was wrong, sinful, imperialistic and evil. Anything that the former Soviet Union and China did was far above criticism. This was all right till the 'ideology over national and public interest' line was largely symbolic. But, it had terrible consequences for the state when dogma invaded realpolitik and started affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of citizens. Mercifully for India, voters now seem far less swayed by ideology and identity politics than they were in the recent past; that perhaps was the biggest message sent out by voters during the 2009 general elections when both the CPI(M) and the BJP were humiliated and humbled.
Party & ideology over nation
Most will remember the visceral and unflinching manner in which Prakash Karat and his fellow comrades opposed the nuclear deal between India and the United States. During the official visit of George Bush to India, they even forgot courtesy while abusing and heckling him (one wonders how many people would have been killed in police firing if demonstrators had abused and heckled Chinse Supremo Hu Jintao during a hypothetical state visit to Kolkata?) But not many will remember that Marxists like Basu always blamed India more than China for the 1962 debacle. Just consider this: The CPI, mentored by the Soviet Union, supported the Emergency because Indira’s India was a Soviet ally; the CPI(M) opposed it vehemently because China was not very fond of Indira’s India. Of course, both supported the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and kept quiet on the Chinese invasion of fellow Marxist state Vietnam in 1979. Under Jyoti Basu, West Bengal always gave more importance to ideology over public interest. Anything that the United States did was wrong, sinful, imperialistic and evil. Anything that the former Soviet Union and China did was far above criticism. This was all right till the 'ideology over national and public interest' line was largely symbolic. But, it had terrible consequences for the state when dogma invaded realpolitik and started affecting the lives and livelihoods of millions of citizens. Mercifully for India, voters now seem far less swayed by ideology and identity politics than they were in the recent past; that perhaps was the biggest message sent out by voters during the 2009 general elections when both the CPI(M) and the BJP were humiliated and humbled.
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