CPM works with different calculations when targeting Mamata Banerjee, as against others

Regardless of its increasing political irrelevance, the Communist Party of India – Marxist (CPM,) continues with its tradition of muddled alliances. Recently, the party’s Bengal leadership snubbed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as she urged her political adversaries to join the fight against demonetisation and the Narendra Modi government. Banerjee called the CPM General Secretary, pitching the idea of a joint fight against the BJP. Sitaram Yechury, ever the artful dodger, shunted the responsibility of a decision to the Bengal unit, which snapped at Banerjee, and rebuffed her proposal.

CPM politburo member Mohammed Salim told news agencies that “this is a desperate call and an attempt to save her own party leaders who are allegedly involved in the Saradha and Narada scams. What is the credibility of the TMC? How can they talk about fighting against black money when her [Mamata’s> own party leaders are involved in the Saradha scam and have been arrested”. According to Salim, Banerjee’s gesture signified her “desperation” to save her own “corrupt” party leaders.

The magnitude of the Saradha scam and the involvement of a host of Trinamool Congress leaders (some of whom have been jailed,) is, of course, well documented. Equally well documented is the involvement of scores of Congress men — senior and junior — in seemingly endless mega scams. In fact, a primary reason attributed to the low credibility of the Congress is its muddied financial record and its implication in one scam after another. Corruption is the biggest bane facing the Congress party, which ruled the Centre for a decade before the Narendra Modi-led government dislodged it in 2014.

In this context, it’s only reasonable to ask why the CPIM — its leadership in Bengal as well as at the Centre — had no compunction in extending support to a party as corrupt as the Congress. Not only that, consider the contradictions at the state-level. The Congress was the CPM’s traditional principal adversary in Bengal before its position was usurped by the Trinamool Congress. Notwithstanding these political contradictions, the Congress’ infamous track record on corruption, and its dilly-dallying with soft Hindutva, the CPM, has time and again, propped up a government led by the party at the Centre. The argument advanced usually has to do with its political objective of stalling the BJP from coming to power.

Banerjee’s appeal for unity, too, is prompted by that same motive: to checkmate the BJP. Yet, inexplicably, such a challenge no longer interests the CPM. Apparently the party cannot bury the hatchet even temporarily with the Trinamool Congress; the way it had in the past, with the Congress. Even as recently as the Bengal assembly elections earlier this year, the CPM had no hesitation in allying itself with the discredited Congress. Do the charges of corruption against Banerjee equal or outflank the dimensions of corruption engaged in by the Congress, its leaders, and ministers?

The shoe seems to pinch elsewhere. The CPM is both unable and unwilling to reconcile to losing power in a state it ruled unchallenged for over thirty years. But political equations have drastically altered since then. Not only has Banerjee gone from strength to strength between 2011 (when the Trinamool Congress first came to power) and 2016 (when she won a second term), her victory march seems to go on uninterrupted. The entire opposition, including the CPM on the other hand, has allowed itself to be reduced to political ciphers.

Consider the by–poll elections earlier this month, in which Trinamool Congress retained all three seats — two in Lok Sabha and one in Assembly. The party swept the Tamluk and Coochbehar Lok Sabha constituencies by a huge margin of over 4.9 lakh votes, almost doubling the gap from the 2014 polls. In addition, the Trinamool Congress also bagged the Monteswar assembly seat with candidates of all three opposition parties, CPM, Congress and BJP, losing their deposits.

The writing on the wall is clear. But the CPM is refusing to read. This is not the first time that Banerjee has made an overture to the CPM in the hopes of setting aside ideological differences to fight the BJP. Following Modi’s 2014 electoral triumph and the exodus from the ranks of her party as well as the CPM’s to the BJP, Banerjee invited the Bengal leadership of the CPM to Writers’ Buildings. Over tea, she held out an olive branch to her opponents, urging a joint fight against the BJP’s emergence in Bengal. But that offer – like the recent offer – was made in vain. The CPM seems to be working with a different set of calculations where targeting Banerjee seems to be the party’s primary political objective. Even to its own detriment.