Some time back, somebody shouted in a busy street in Calcutta: “Calcutta is forever!” Ambassador taxis were inching along with the amazing sight of traffic policemen with revolvers in big holsters at their hips.
Finally its time to say goodbye to the Left Government after a remarkable 34 years of the Communists rule in Bengal, with a dramatic tun back by the right wing forces which not even the die hard of the supporters could have imagined after the humiliating rout they suffered in the previous elections.
It was the world’s only democratically-elected communist government holding power for 34 years elected seven times after taking power on June 21, 1977 at the head of a coalition of Left-leaning parties that capitalised on the mood following the Emergency Rule in India at that time.
The left government successfully provided a stable government and a relatively safe atmosphere to live in, after a divided opposition was unable to unseat the nine-party Left Front in election after election. The 64-year-old London-educated communist Jyoti Basu took oath as the left governments first chief minister of West Bengal, heralding the birth of a government that has gone on to win one election after another and seemed invincible even five years back.
So the winds of change are here, only time will tell whether Calcutta will again slowly but steadily regain its lost glory and bring back the elitism and aristocracy that was once synonymous with Bengalis living here.
. . .
Finally its time to say goodbye to the Left Government after a remarkable 34 years of the Communists rule in Bengal, with a dramatic tun back by the right wing forces which not even the die hard of the supporters could have imagined after the humiliating rout they suffered in the previous elections.
It was the world’s only democratically-elected communist government holding power for 34 years elected seven times after taking power on June 21, 1977 at the head of a coalition of Left-leaning parties that capitalised on the mood following the Emergency Rule in India at that time.
The left government successfully provided a stable government and a relatively safe atmosphere to live in, after a divided opposition was unable to unseat the nine-party Left Front in election after election. The 64-year-old London-educated communist Jyoti Basu took oath as the left governments first chief minister of West Bengal, heralding the birth of a government that has gone on to win one election after another and seemed invincible even five years back.
So the winds of change are here, only time will tell whether Calcutta will again slowly but steadily regain its lost glory and bring back the elitism and aristocracy that was once synonymous with Bengalis living here.
. . .
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