Left out

Blinkered ideology has made it irrelevant

Inequality and joblessness in post-economic reform India have been persistent bleak spots in the landscape of economic growth but the movement that developed from colonial times to protect workers’ and peasants’ rights has steadily lost traction. Left parties once dominated the political landscape, with Left members of Parliament holding ministerial positions in the mid-nineties and supporting a Congress-led government at the Centre between 2004 and 2008. Now the movement has been reduced to a nonentity. It holds power in just one state from three at the start of the century, and only one of these parties has national-party status —