Report card on the Indian left

The Indian mainstream Left has been enjoying unprecedented influence in Delhi´s corridors of power since the results of the May 2004 general elections. With 63 members in the Lower House of the Parliament, the Left Front is a crucial ally of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, and holds the key to its survival. The Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India, key constituents of the Front, have not hesitated to exert this political strength to influence policy, despite supporting the government only from outside.

In their hour of unprecedented influence in national affairs, however, the mainline communists have caused intense consternation among diverse actors while being the target of harsh criticism. From the stock markets, which plummeted the day the present political alignment took shape, to the traditional Right that senses a weakening of its Hindutva project, the Left´s new-found power is greeted with opposition and worry. Meanwhile, self-proclaimed pragmatists as well as sections of the liberal intelligentsia and media view the CPM and CPI as being out of touch with international realities of American hegemony and unbridled economic globalisation. The Left´s caution against economic ´reforms´ in times when the IMF model of growth is regarded as sacred means that they are seen as the harbinger of a return to the ´dark´ days of ´failed´ state socialism.