Bankruptcy of the left ideology

Hypocrisy, inconsistency, double speak is par for the course for politicians. Some might say it's their professional hazard. It sounds cynical to ask what kind of a hypocrite the voters should choose as their next leader. It is actually much more cynical to pretend that politics can ever be completely sincere.

Political hypocrisy is both timely, and timeless. Or shall we argue that we should accept hypocrisy as a fact of politics — the most dangerous form of political hypocrisy is to claim to have a politics without hypocrisy. Look at the CPM's preference. The other day when the BJP celebrated September 17 as the 'Liberation Day' of Hyderabad State (from the Nizam's despotic rule), the entire Left tied itself in knots in defending the Nizam as a patriot and preferred to call Hyderabad annexation by the Indian Army as a merger just as the AIMIM. Of course, the Left does not like the BJP and will not mind going to any extent in opposing what the BJP does. Yet, to call it a merger and not liberation for a party which waged an armed struggle against the anti-people Nizam's rule in the name of 'Telangana Rythanga Sayudha Poratam' for nearly four years or so, is stretching its hypocrisy too far.

To top it, the Left has now come up with another argument that the erstwhile Maharaja of Kashmir was anti-India and anti-people. Referring to Jammu and Kashmir administration's decision not to observe the Martyrs Day in Kashmir on July 13 to commemorate the memory of 22 persons who were killed in firing in 1931 under the Maharaja's rule, the Leftists justify the protests as a fight against the feudal monarchy. What else was Nizam's rule? If any, the Maharaja at least did not run a unit of Razakars or its equivalent to massacre people. Lamenting the fact that for the second consecutive year there was no official commemoration of the event, the CPM leadership called it a move to disempower the people of the valley because not commemorating the day has a resonance for the people of Kashmir.

In its latest editorial, the CPM says that the Maharaja symbolised autocratic feudal rule under British patronage of the system of princely states. It further says that Sheik Abdullah led the people's movement for establishing a democratic rule in the State. Comparing the Army invasion of the Hyderabad State with that of the Kashmir situation then, the CPM harps on the fact that the Maharaja preferred independence and only agreed to the accession after the invasion by Pakistan-led tribal forces. What did the Nizam do till the 'merger'?

The Left has become irrelevant to this country because of not only bankruptcy of its ideology but also due to its hypocrisy. It justifies its friendship with the Congress in Bengal while fighting tooth and nail in Kerala. Just the other day we have seen it debunking the 'padayatra' of Rahul Gandhi questioning his intentions in touring Kerala for 18 days. What should the Congress do in Kerala? Leave the field to the Leftists? When Mamata Benerjee left the company of the NDA, it is a secular party and when she went somewhat soft on Modi and the RSS, she is pro-fascist. It is better that the Leftists realise that such doublespeak does not take them anywhere.