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`New BJP' and `new Left'

Ranabir Ray Choudhury

EVERYONE seems to be talking about a `new' this party or `new' that party these days, certainly in unintended emulation of Mr Tony Blair's New Labour movement in Britain which, incidentally, is up for the supreme test next month in the co ming British general election. The point is, what is the substance of these claims? Is the `new Left' in West Bengal or the `new BJP' at the Centre something that reflects concrete developments at the respective party levels, implying a shift in emphasis and perhaps, even in orientation of the party-ideologies concerned?

Or are the new appellations a mere reflection of the desire to change -- given the new requirements of the 21st Century -- without actually changing anything at the party level, in which case the new descriptions of the parties concerned are not worth much?

At the Centre, given the BJP's ``introspection sessions'' that have been held recently and the reported goings-on in these sessions, it is evident that the party feels the need for a course-correction which, in fact, has been emphasised by the well-publi cised problems surfacing between it and the parent body, the RSS. Indeed, the ``new BJP'' idea is not new at all because, if one remembers correctly, some time back, the Union Home Minister, Mr L. K. Advani, had referred to the description in course of d iscussing the need for the BJP to, first, govern in terms of the NDA election manifesto and, only then, attach any importance to the core demands of the party which have been an aspect of the Sangh Parivar's programme for as long as one can remember.

There is little doubt that the Vajpayee Government has tried its level best to ``govern'' according to the NDA guidelines -- and quite appropriately so, in view of the fact that the Vajpayee-led regime is an NDA Government and not a saffron ou tfit. But, in course of expending this effort, the contradictions between the ``new BJP'' imperatives and the ideological moorings of the party have become pronounced, to such an extent that a positive effort has had to be made by party l eaders and Parivar elders to put their heads together and smoothen things out.

At this point of time, it will perhaps be safe to suggest that the ``new BJP'' exists only in name because, first, there is as yet no move to wrench the party away from its ``family'' and, second, the Parivar has shown no signs of wilting towards the new policy directions being set by Mr Vajpayee and his NDA Ministerial team. Indeed, the point can even be made that the BJP, as it exists now, is actually going against its credo by ``deviating'' from the three principal policy pillars of the saffron briga de -- building the Ram temple at Ayodhya, introducing a uniform civil code, and abrogating Article 370 which deals with the special status for Jammu and Kashmir. In other words, the party cannot continue to be a member of the Parivar and, at th e same time, strike out on its own in spheres in which the Parivar has a well-defined policy stand.

In recent days, the contradiction between the two courses of action has been shown up very clearly indeed by the outburst of a leader of the BMS, the labour wing of the saffron brigade. In fact, the friction between the two sides has been so severe that Mr Thengadi, the BMS doyen, has not hesitated to call the Union Finance Minister a ``criminal'' for having framed and implemented economic policy which (as he sees it) is ``against the interest of the national economy''. The point of this column is not t o evaluate the merits or demerits of the policies on either side of the divide but merely to underscore the fact that the BJP is not in any way a ``new BJP'' -- as is being claimed by some people -- for the simple reason that, were it so, the curr ent controversies just would not have cropped up.

In fact, it is only after such controversies are settled in favour of change and amendment of the prevailing Parivar line that the party could be called a ``new BJP'' in the truest sense of the term.

Can the same thing be said of the Left Front in West Bengal generally, and the CPI(M) in particular? Already, one is hearing the term ``new Left'', but what exactly does it mean in the prevailing context of West Bengal politics and the evolution of the L eft movement in the State and that of the CPI(M)? The term ``new Left'' can be used only if there is a break with the past ideological stance of the Left in West Bengal, or if there is a distinct shift in the implementation-pattern of set policies to suc h an extent that a new paradigm is suggested. Has this occurred in the West Bengal Left movement?

The short answer is, no. When Mr Jyoti Basu headed the Left Front Government in the State, there was no change whatever in Left activities and policies in West Bengal. There was the occasional outburst against labour indiscipline by the aging Chief Minis ter, but that was all. The detailed basic CPI(M) policy on labour remained intact. Admittedly, Mr Basu too made the `right' noises as far as providing incentives to investors in the State was concerned, but, again, that was all.

Both the State Finance Minister and the chairman of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation have occasionally fed the public with copious and confusing statistics to back the plea that impressive economic development has been notched up by Wes t Bengal. While the effort has been laudable, the stark fact is that nothing of the sort has happened -- at least not in the transparent, public domain.

But the `newness' of the Left in the State is not totally a figment of the imagination. After all, when the Chief Minister of a State withdraws from office voluntarily after having put in more than 20 years of strenuous service (including regular, annual , tiring trips to Britain to garner NRI investments for his economically healthy State), some change has, after all, taken place. Indeed, the change is even more pronounced when his successor -- in the few months given to him before Assembly elections are held in the State -- tries his best to create an impact by speeding up policy implementation which, incidentally, is also an admission that there was much to be desired in this specific direction under the previous ``Rip Van Winkle regime''.

There is little doubt that the new West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, is like a breath of fresh air blowing across the uncomfortably humid and congenitally unproductive economic plains of West Bengal, not to say anything about the no n-economic spheres of Government activity. The question is: Will the refreshing breeze be strong enough to blow away the cobwebs that have accummulated under the rule of his venerable predecessor? This is important because it is only in the event of such impediments being cleared from the scene, and new guidelines being laid down for all players in the economy, that the term ``new Left'' can be appropriately used.

One, of course, wishes the new Chief Minister every success in his endeavour to ``get on with the job'', but -- like in the case of the BJP -- will the `party' in the State and at the national level permit him to do so, and to the extent he woul d like to? This is the important question that has to be answered first before one can talk about a ``new Left'' having taken charge of West Bengal.