One Left, two voices

It is difficult not to notice the post-election contrast between West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on the one hand and several Left leaders in New Delhi on the other.

The Delhi leaders sounded off before TV cameras from Day One, until the stock market crash forced them to disappear from the arc lights after threatening unnamed manipulators.

In contrast, Mr Bhattacharya's position and approach has been more in tune with the demands of the real world. CPI leader A B Bardhan, who has taken to jabbing his finger at querying newspersons and cutting them short, said soon after the verdict, "To hell with disinvestment and Arun Shourie."

Mr Bhattacharya, on the other hand, told a newspaper interviewer, "Reforms are a must. Either you reform or perish." And he ended by saying, "Reforms with a human face. I like that phrase." More than the words, there seems to be a chasm between the two entities, the bhadralok as opposed to the apparatchik.

The Left leaders at the Centre have so far been dwelling on demands related to petroleum product prices, disinvestment in profit-making public sector units and the rate of interest on provident fund balances (the last two clearly designed to protect a narrow unionised vote bank that does not consist of the really poor).

Mr Bhattacharya's position and priorities seem quite different. On disinvestment his position is that "We have to change. If you have to privatise industry one must take care of the workers."

The difference in emphasis goes further. Mr Bhattacharya is proud that the election results are a vindication of the agriculture-based development strategy that the Left has followed in West Bengal.

But he also is honest enough to give a long list of what he has to be modest about. First comes past errors made on the trade union front. Then he mentions key deficit areas like education, particularly the quality of teaching in primary schools, and health care, particularly the state of hospitals.

Governing in India, with all the different pulls and pressures, can be a humbling experience. And the Left in West Bengal has championed so many negative tendencies that the state has a long haul back to normalcy. To his credit, the chief minister has recognised this and is doing what he can.

Mr Bhattacharya notes that when he canvasses for investment in the state, he makes a clean breast of the pluses and minuses. "I am frank and make a true confession of the situation. This is perhaps why they take us seriously."

On the other hand, the lack of experience in exercising power creates its own delusionary world where mythical solutions seem plausible. But if you live in the real world, even those who supported rival parties (like the Trinamool Congress) will vote for you "" and this is what has happened in West Bengal.