As polls get messier, why is Left so quiet?

The major political parties in the race to Parliament have succeeded in converting the contest into a tamasha with little regard for political and social propriety. This is the best that can be said for the BJP giving the hospitality of its membership to the likes of Pramod Muthalik in Karnataka and JD(U) defector Sabir Ali in Bihar, and then buckling down under intense popular pressure.

The Congress has also not thought twice about courting undesirable elements — to wit, offering its party ticket to Imran Masood from Saharanpur in UP who, last year, had apparently threatened to eliminate Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, who was subsequently named the BJP’s PM candidate. The use of degrading language against opponents is quite simply not the way to conduct politics. If this trend is continued it can lead to violence, and not just end in coarsening public discourse.

Looking back, many are likely to agree that Mr Modi himself did not set a sterling example with his “shehzada” jibe against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at the beginning of his campaign last year. This was singularly unfortunate and was probably the first time the key figure of a major party found himself being personally attacked.

It would be best that the dignity of debate is respected as a principle, especially as election time is a grand national occasion for public education in political matters. Indeed, if this point had been taken seriously by political actors, the Congress and the BJP would not have handed out more than a quarter of their election tickets to those facing serious charges in courts. We must sadly come to the conclusion that the election for the 16th Lok Sabha is not an occasion to cleanse political life.

While looking at the scene in the context of a clean public life, and social and political propriety, we are disappointed with parties across the spectrum. With the Left, however, the disillusion of its own followers is likely to have deepened. Particularly in this election which saw the rise of a state satrap as the Hindutva star and principal candidate, not to say the virtual adoption of Mr Modi by influential sections of industry, simultaneously with yet another Nehru-Gandhi scion taking charge of the Congress, the stalwarts of the Left stayed mysteriously quiet. Indeed, they studiously avoided comment on these trends although the poll campaign should have been the prime time to take their case to the people.