Thirty years ka experience

Like anything that lasts so long, the Left Front Govt has changed since the time its only USP was the harbinger of land reforms in the state.

In the Eighties, before Jyoti Basu was deemed a ‘Marxist patriarch’ and the Left Front government of West Bengal was still aware of a concept called ‘anti-incumbency’, Doordarshan would air the sitcom, Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi, every Friday evening. In the programme, comic actor Satish Shah would play various roles — plumber, repair-man, man on the street — but had one line that summed up his character: “Thirty years ka experience!” Flagging off the 30th anniversary of uninterrupted Left Front rule in West Bengal — the communist coalition coming to power on June 21, 1977 — our comrades in Kolkata’s Alimuddin Street can happily quote Shah’s famous line.

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Like anything that lasts so long, the Left Front government has changed since the time its only USP was the harbinger of land reforms in the state. Mr Basu seems to be keen these days to let it be known that during his long tenure as Chief Minister — 1977 to 2000 — he was not the autocrat that both his critics and admirers made him out to be. “There was no decision taken by me that was not ratified by the top leadership of the party,” he stated on Wednesday. While such ‘humility’ has always been the hallmark of Indian leaders (and not only of communists), does one detect a message for his successor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee?

Whether it’s been the issue of setting up the Tata automobile factory or the ‘course corrections’ regarding trade unionism, Mr Bhattacharjee’s actions have been subtly questioned by Mr Basu. The present Chief Minister has been doing an admirable job of making the CPI(M) follow his tune — not melodious to many of his colleagues. But it seems that 30 years have finally managed to do something that 25 years couldn’t: understand the basic fact that
to redistribute wealth, one has to have wealth. Better late than never.