Left Right Left!

It is the end of the marriage of convenience. Day before yesterday when news filtered in that the Left had decided to withdraw its support to the UPA government, it was hardly a surprise to most people. Some expected the stock market to tank immediately, but then the market had been quietly gearing itself up for the upcoming political changes for the past few days & acted as resolutely as could be reasonably expected. Had spoken to many market players both before & after the support-withdrawal & indeed, many were of the view that the breakup of the marriage with the Left was the best thing to have happened & the stock market would have been bullish even had their had been no support from the SP & the UPA had had fallen; such was the negative impact of the Left ideology over the industry & markets (I myself can’t think of a single constructive contribution of the Left to the Govt in the last 4 years, apart from criticizing the various policies advocated by the Congress). Kudos to the Congress for finally finding some guts to stick to its guns amidst so much flak over the perceived Americanization of the 123 nuclear deal & the potential fallout of the Hyde Amendment.

Yesterday, had a very spirited discussion with my colleagues ‘A’ & ‘H’, over the role of Left in Indian politics, at lunch hour. More specifically, the topic was ‘Do we really need a Left to safeguard public interest?’. My colleagues were of the opinion that given the demographics of the country, we would never be able to completely banish the leftist ideology from the country, since most of the policies framed since independence have a pro-bono angle to them.'H' went ahead to say that had their had been no Left, the rich-poor gap in the country would have been worser than what it is right now. Agreed. But the moot point over here is does the traditional stance of the Left really hold ground in the bigger picture? Moreso its policy to resolutely oppose anything which takes India forward. (The opposition of the divestment, the opening up of FDI in telecom, aviation sectors, SEZ policy all boil down to the same thing, doesn't it?). Can India & more specifically, the poorer section really advance, if the Govt heeds to Left advise & the industrial progress is slowed down?

The left in India has resolutely followed a single policy...to oppose anything related to America, irrespective of the fact whether it is beneficial to the country or not. Global Warming & Energy conservation issues be darned. The 123 nuclear agreement is very important to India; the whole world & its aunty knows it. Already the stand taken by India as not to be a signatory to the NPT is a sore point wth the west. Considering the dangerous neighbours India has, it has no option but to ally itself with the powers who can reign them in, unless & until it wants total political isolation; something which India has already experienced disastrously during the Cold War. Even the Chinese Communists know that for their future survival, they will have to look with increasing favour towards the West. And in this scenario, the inability of the Indian Left to deviate from its age-old ideology & think the bigger picture really rankles.

In this context, it makes sense to say 'Good Riddance' to the Left.