Defeat of CPM in Bengal, not a defeat of socialistic ideology rather it’s just replacement of one ruling class by another

The results of the West Bengal assembly elections are out. The view outside the home of Mamata Banerjee is full of delirious supporters. The newspapers are ranting, the electronic media is shouting "A history has been created; Bengal has come out of the red cocoon." The 34 year old reign of the CPI (M) has ended. The left front has been wiped out and the question the people is asking, “Is this the end of the communism in India?" "NO” The answer to this question lies in the very character of the so-called communist party CPI(M).Before justifying our answer to the same question, we would like to put forward few points.

1. Defects of the 34-year old CPM rule and the factors leading to TMC's win

As the TMC election manifesto has very kindly pointed out the causes for the decline of CPM are decline of industry in the state, decline of the agriculture and the tremendous amount of debt on the state. The creaking infrastructure has played its part too. During the 34 years CPM rule the number of industries at India level has come down to 4% in 2008-09 from 7.6% in 1976-77. The share of the industry in state economy was 27% in 1975-76, the figure decline to 18.4% in 2008-09 whereas all India share of industry during the same time grew from 22% to 25.8%. Not only industry, the agriculture growth rate has come down to 7.8% in 2008-09 from 17.3% in 1966-76. Moreover the West Bengal government has is in a debt trap. The state has a total outstanding liability of Rs. 1,68,684 crore in 2009-10. These are the administrative shortcomings of the CPI (M) during their rule over the state but the basic factor which single handedly brought TMC at par with CPM was the issues of Singur and Nandigram.