Once bitter political and ideological rivals, the CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) have of late mended fences. Now CPI(M) leadership will have All India Students’ Association (AISA), the students wing of CPI(M-L) together with it in an agitation on education and youth issues in West Bengal.
Time was when CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) leaders let alone take part in a joint agitation did not even share a podium. The CPI(M) continued to ride the high horse as long as the Left Front was the ruling dispensation of the state.
The change of heart of dominant partner of the Left Front, the CPI(M) started before the 2009 Assembly elections which witnessed a 15-year old long Trinamool Congress dispensation that ended recently. But before the 2009 polls, unsure of its victory prospects, the TMC extended welcome to parties of divergent ideological views.
Both the CPI(M-L) and SUCI had been approached by the TMC leadership. Of the duo, while SUCI accepted the offer, it was declined by the CPI(M -L) on ideological grounds.
The refusal on part of the CPI(M-L) did not go unnoticed. But the reason behind the decision to include AISA in its ranks in the agitation against the first BJP state government in West Bengal lies elsewhere.
Past few elections witnessed CPI(M-L) nominees contesting as Left Front supported candidates. Manas Ghosh was one such candidate against BJP heavyweight nominee Swapan Dasgupta though the former lost.
It is a tactical decision on the part of the CPI(M) leadership to have AISA activists in future stirs in West Bengal. The decision comes in the wake of seeing the AISA activists in action during the Jantar Mantar agitation which led to the resignation of Union minister for Education, Dharmendra Pradhan on the issue of question leak of National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET).
It was indeed a battle of nerves which snowballed into police lathi charges and water canons being fired on the agitating students and others. What impressed the CPI(M) leaders was the grit displayed by the AISA activists as salvoes from water canons and baton charges rained on them as they dug in their heels and remained unyielding in their demand of the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan from the Union Cabinet.
All along, the AISA activists were in the vanguard of the movement. And if they braved being drenched and besten up, these agitators continued to have their wits about them.
The veteran CPI(M) leaders have been impressed by the ability of the AISA activists to think on their feet. Time and again, they displayed the ability to match wits with seasoned and senior BJP leaders.
The young AISA activists were not fobbed off with truce at the negotiating table. Their wit and an ability to stick to their demand which some of the saffron camp dubbed as obduracy finally led to Pradhan putting in his papers.
The presence of the AISA activists is aimed to energise CPI(M) activists who are on the backfoot post a near five decade dissociation with power and governance. There are divergent voices in the Marxist outfit on the issue.
Requesting annonymity, a senior leader said that the inclusion of AISA activists are welcome in agitations in the state. But the fact remains that given the massive gathering in protest against the NEET question paper leak last month left nothing to imagination, he felt.
Without little prior notice to the rank and file, the protest march made its way from Sealdah to Esplanade where a face off with police followed. Several journalists were allegedly beaten up by processionists.
A party convention of CPI(M) in Nadia scheduled to be held in the second week of this month is planned to be a launch pad to overcome organisational inertia and reconnect with young activists after a string of poor electoral performance, it was learnt from party sources. State party secretary, and polit bureau member Mohammad Salim and other leaders are expected to address the gathering and outline the party’s game plan in the changed political landscape.
But to turn to the AISA involvement issue, the student outfit’s national president Neha Bora will participate in a discussion at Moulali Yuba Kendra on August 11. A student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, she came into prominence during the Jantar Mantar agitation.
Political observers consider the two programmes as an attempt by left outfit to consolidate students and youth participation. through issue based campaign. Incidentally, the participation and enthusiasm of Gen Z in the Jantar Mantar stir and bringing it to fruition have made Left leaders place renewed trust on the gritty young brigade
The presence of AISA activists in movements on public grievance issues in the state will add more teeth to the stirs. The agitations too are based on emotive issues like hawker eviction and corruption in education provide space for the Left fraternise with the people.
The streets rather than podiums are far better suited to display fraternity. A distance developing between the CPI(M) leadership and the affected persons have thrown a spanner in the works of successive agitations.
A big gathering cannot be denied in support of a cause. But the cause did not fetch the CPI(M) enough votes to increase of tally of legislators.
The presence of the AISA activists is being considered in some of the CPI(M) quarters a ploy to save the party leadership of being associated with Operation Sunshine launched in the late ’90s to evict the hawkers from Kolkata streets. Apparently ancient history, the presence of an organisation like AISA in the proposed anti-hawker drive will divert the public attention towards participants who have been at the forefront of a successful agitation at the National Capital recently.
