CRUSHED BENEATH THE WHEEL OF hISTORY:

India's Communist party faces defeat in its West Bengal heartland: The opposition Trinamool Congress smells blood as corruption and the rise of violent Maoism take their toll on the CPIM (Jason Burke, 5/29/10, The Observer)

Today's municipal elections are unlike any for decades: the Communists, who have held West Bengal's main towns almost without a break since the 1970s, are facing disaster. Kolkata, the capital of the state and the only major Indian metropolis currently held by the party, may be lost. This time defeat is likely to be definitive and could signal the beginning of the end for the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPIM), which is among the biggest and oldest communist parties in the world.

Opposition politicians in the city of 15 million are confident of victory. "No doubt, no sweat, we will win in Calcutta by a thumping majority," claimed Partha Chatterjee, a leader of the All India Trinamool ("grassroots") Congress party (TMC), the main opposition locally. "We have support from the poor, the students, the middle class. People are oppressed, repressed. They have had enough. They want change."

Chatterjee's claim is not merely bombastic. Earlier this year, the Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm said that the collapse of the Communists in West Bengal was one of the developments that had surprised him most in recent years. The comment made front page headlines locally and forced hasty rebuttals from the CPIM national leadership in Delhi.

He's still surprised communism doesn't work?

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2010 7:09 PM