Gerontocracy and Bengal Communists

The Bengal bhadralok has been very keen to snatch back its power from the young turks, sitting in Delhi, who sometimes have the temerity to issue long winded statements on Indian alignments with US and their opposition to strategic agreements with US in the guise of a civil nuclear agreement.

While young ninety year olds from Bengal, who till now were content to rule from Kolkata, now feel that after the decades of ideological impasse, it is time to make up for the lost time they have spent red washing Bengal into mind numbing ideological debates on capitalism and imperialism. So they are trying their best to make up for lost time.

These young ninety year olds really take a long time to sense which way the wind is blowing !! Maybe now they will effect their transition from ideologues to pragmatists of the new Indian coalition political order ? Prodded a bit of course by the intelligent Indian foreign minister who knows where to pull the strings in the left establishment to get crucial nods and go aheads.

The volatile political combination of the issue of Nandigram and the civil nuclear issue, have proved to be the crucial Bridge on the River Kwai for the differences between the Bengal bhadralok and the Delhi based leftists to emerge into the public realm.

The congress is of course making smug remarks on how the left says day after tomorrow what they have been saying since Dr Singh took over the reins of Indian economy.

But the one crucial respect in which the left of Bengal are still not ready to learn any lessons from the changed realities of India, is the reliance on old leaders. The English language of course has the word called gerontocracy - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerontocracy

Wikipedia - "A gerontocracy is a form of oligarchical rule in which an entity is ruled by leaders who are significantly older than most of the adult population. Often the political structure is such that political power within the ruling class accumulates with age, so that the oldest hold the most power. Those holding the most power may not be in formal leadership positions, but often dominate those who are.

Gerontocracy's strength is seen as its stability, which can be more appropriate for institutions that teach principles that do not vary over time. In institutions that have to cope with rapid change, the decreased faculties of the aged can potentially be a handicap in providing effective leadership."

Yes time for Mr Karat and Mr Yechury to learn that while some things may seem to change, some things will surely not.

Time will show whether the Bengal CM's penchant for Nandigram will force the left to ride rough shod over the Delhi based Marxists who in 2007, were adopting very aggressive stances on the nuclear issue, As they say, 2008 is yet another year. Happy New Year. Welcome to the pragmatic left in 2008 and the fine boundaries of left statecraft in a year of electoral compulsions and pragmatism.