It’s time Left parties pull up socks

It took thirty-four years for people of West Bengal to get rid of Left Front hegemony from the state. Albeit the target was a achieved with a kind of Aila cyclone in the state. the new Government under Chief Minister-In Waiting Mamta Banerjee has to walk on thorny bushes in the state.

By providing such a big margin to Trinamool Congress the masses have vented out their anger against the autocratic rule in the state. However the final coffin was sealed when chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee himself lost the Jadavpur seat by around 25,000 votes to Manish Gupta, who once worked under him Chief Secretary of the state. Interesting from this seat he was contesting since 1987 and in the year 2006 he won by margin of 58,000 votes showing the peak of his popularity and the support base that his party had.

But what happened after that? Why did the party which continued to dominate for so long suddenly lost its direction in the wave of tide? Or was it a Singur and Nandigram affect? How can a CM who was widely a popular still a year ago suddenly lost a grip even from his constituency? These are some of the tough questions that Left leaders might be pondering upon these days.

To add fuel into the fire the country had witnessed too much of violence and killings by CPM’s harmad bahini which finally turned out to be our moderate Red leaders greatest blunder of them all. You cannot win elections by terrorizing your own people. They must have realized by now that the ultimate power of democracy lies with citizens of this country.

The only solace for the Left left now is that they are still holding their dome in Tripura and lost quite marginally in Kerala. Perhaps another reason for their shoddy performance this time was the tug of war among its top leaders. It seems there was no unity among their ranks. When Tata was setting up a factory in Singur for the manufacture of Nano cars Buddha babu was more than willing to help them, but inner scuffle within the party and mass protest by Mamta and her supporters forced the Tata group to shift their base at Sachivalay premises in Gandhinagar.

When Prakash Karat was asked to lead CPM it was hoped that he will provide new energy to the leadership as well as party cadres. And so he did in 2004 General elections when the party had won more than fifty-nine seats for the first time in its history and went on to become king maker when they supported UPA-1 Government from outside. But then they soon widraw from the Government as they were against Union Government’s decision to sign a Nuclear deal deal with US. Perhaps that very decision by the comrades was the beginning of Left Front’s downfall, as most of the people were supporting the bill at that time. Then came couple local bodies elections when they were completely trounced by Trinamool Congress members.

Now the so called top comrades need to do some soul searching if they want get back to power in next general elections in West Bengal and Kerala. However if they fail to read the writings on the wall, we might soon see an end of a communist era in India and another in the world.

A lot at stake for Pakistan

Our neighbouring country Pakistan, it seems is yet to learn from its mistakes from the past. It is evident from the fact that instead of feeling shame that the world's most dreaded terrorist was caught in its own backyard, the country’s government is busy claiming their contributions in fight against terror.

After Osama was captured and killed on May 2, 2011, inside a secured private residential compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by U.S. Navy SEALs in a covert operation, Pakistan Government is claiming its innocence and irresolute about his whereabouts inside its own country. The question remains if didn’t know then why it didn’t know, even when he was residing in a place very near to Pakistan Army training camp.

With the result, a lot is at stake for Pakistani establishment, for it has to face a lot of questions about its seriousness for fight against terrorism. Strangely for a country, which is witnessing bomb blasts, killing thousands of innocent people since last couple of years and also fundamentalist Islamists killing people voicing against blasphemy laws, nothing substantial has been done so far.

On the other hand, by turning its back against the wall, they are showing no mood to relent and handover criminals hiding in Pakistan. it seems they country's Government is determined to continue to support terrorism and script its own epitaph.

Even yesterday, two of their senior officials reciprocated the claim by some of India’s top brass officials that they will counter any attack by Indian forces. No doubt, One should respect the sovereignty of the country. Having said that they clearly understands that India, being a peace loving nation did not cross LOC when it got several opportunities for attacks on our sovereignty, be it 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attack, Parliament attack, Delhi serious blasts are some to name a few. If India was eager to cross Loc it could have perhaps done so in several such occasions, but refrained from doing so.

India, USA or any other country do not want to entangle itself in a war against Pakistan. However if Pakistan rise above double game politics and show significant contributions in the war against terror , then it can also save its own citizens from clutches of terrorist attacks. If they fail to do so and continue to harbour terrorists like Osama bin Laden or Dawood Ibrahim, then it find end up losing aids and other support from international community.

Now only Pakistan can help itself and save itself from embarrassing situation and help world community in a more appropriate manner in its fight against terrorism.