Change is here. I had expected the Left Front would lose, but I didn't think the loss would be this huge. This is a massive defeat. Economics also played a part in the defeat. To a large extent, the kind of policies the Left-Front government followed ever since it came to power were wrong. They rightly emphasised on agriculture, and the Left did rescue a lot of people from hardships.
However, in the process, they also spread Marxist slogans, especially in industrial areas, along with the message that capitalists were enemies of the people. This did enormous damage to the state. Private capiltalists became cautious and scared. No industrialist can invest in a state which believes capitalists are the enemy of the state. These people moved away, and this created an economic problem and employment suffered. This is when the cadre culture developed.
Unfortunately, the Congress party became very weak after 1977. The Left Front survived with whatever gains it made, though the political gains that they made were only through agriculture. The employment policy in the industrial areas was dominated by a cadre culture, which meansjobs and growth could not take off.
The kind of policy the Left followed created discontent among the people. The Singur and Nandigram movements, for the first time, proved there were some political forces in the state, which rightly or wrongly, could oppose the policies of the Left Front government. I have never supported the Singur movement, as it did enormous damage to the state. At the same time, it showed there was another force coming to power.
Dipankar Dasgupta, Professor of Economics, Economic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
