WIDE ANGLE | What The Election Results Mean: See Tripura Example & What It May Signal | Saeed Naqvi

A creeping cynicism about elections, including the recent Bihar outcome, had begun to seriously afflict me after Assembly polls in Tripura in 2018. Covering elections over decades had caused personal likes and dislikes to fade somewhat. This is why my sudden interest in the Tripura contest deserves an explanation.

One day my neighbour in South Delhi, a former Tripura DGP, B.L. Vohra, dropped in. He was wrapped up in nostalgia about his innings in Agartala, during chief minister Manik Sarkar’s term. A decorated officer, Mr Vohra spoke of Sarkar with some admiration, bordering on reverence.

Turning the pages of Vohra’s book on his Tripura years, the following was quite extraordinary:

“Manik Sarkar was definitely unlike any CM I had seen, met, worked with or heard about. He was honest personally and that percolated down to all echelons of the government. One cannot find any examples of his ilk unfortunately in the country.”

This universal assessment of Sarkar even among the Opposition in Tripura would flatter any politician. It wasn’t just that he was himself a gentleman, but he appeared to have instilled his qualities in his Cabinet colleagues and officers across the board. By all accounts his predecessor and guru, Nripen Chakraborty, was even more worthy of emulation. The CM’s house staff had never ever dreamt they would serve a boss whose groceries were purchased on a ration card and who never saved enough to open a bank account. This may be syrupy stuff in an era when an increase in the number of billionaires is a matter of pride.

It is elementary that 25 years of CPI(M) rule could not have lasted only because of the leadership’s decency. Despite the economic crunch, the government in Agartala implemented every Central scheme with greater efficiency than any other state: such as 96 per cent literacy. The gender ratio was something of a record. That is how Tripura’s middle class was created. True, having created a middle class, the government found itself flat-footed. It couldn’t cope with the next stage of aspirations. It produced distributive justice but found itself bereft of ideas to generate wealth to accommodate the educated unemployed. It couldn’t promote two-wheel drivers to the four-wheel level.

Upon arrival in Agartala I could find accommodation only in a government guest house. When I asked the CM if the absence of reasonable hotels was state policy, he was frank: “We are not in a position to cope with social imbalances that come with five-star hotels, bars and restaurants.”

After Left Front rule ended in West Bengal in 2011, the CPI(M) in Agartala had no structure to lean on. In this friendless era, it was exposed to hostile TV bombardment. Riding the crest of economic liberalisation, market fundamentalism galloped at breakneck speed to accommodate advertising for rampaging consumerism marketed by dream merchants, the architects of plush malls and multiplexes. Hindutva flourishes when rampaging markets determine the pace of life.

CPI(M) chief minister Manik Sarkar’s controlled austerities withstood this barrage of televised razzmatazz for 25 years. By this time another generation had risen, torn between a lifestyle of simplicity and the Eldorado on the horizon that metropolitan centres teased and tempted them with.

After the Left defeat, Agartala was in trauma. Before they could recover, the stunned CPI(M) cadres had to adjust to another reality: party loyalists were suddenly not making eye contact with them. Some, with an eye on the main chance, even joined the mobs attacking CPI(M) offices, or pulling down Lenin’s statues.

To a considerable extent, the outcome in Tripura and elsewhere was the Congress’ gift to the BJP. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was brilliant in electoral management, quit the Congress as he could not bear Rahul Gandhi’s insulting silences. Tarun Gagoi, former Assam CM, was eager to make his son Gaurav CM. This would cut out Mr Sarma, whose political skills underpinned the latter half of the Gogoi years.

This kind of a dynamo, backed by money power and an adversarial Centre controlling the purse strings: this is how the Left was uprooted in Tripura. Just imagine, when state after state was implementing the 7th Pay Commission, Tripura found itself stranded at the 4th Pay Commission. CPI(M) dogma also stood in the way: “7th Pay Commission made some demands which were anti-people.”

I have dug up my Tripura files as a metaphor, an add-on to mull over while the Bihar verdict is being digested.

The state had been ploughing its furrow diligently with some quite extraordinary results on the Human Development Index, which the mainstream media never discussed. Yes, the state with a population of 40 lakhs was small. Only Sikkim and Goa were smaller. Or was the media squeamish about applauding a state that for 32 of the past 37 years was under Left Front rule?

Some of its records are amazing. Its 96 per cent literacy makes it the country’s most literate state. Literacy rate in Gujarat is 83 per cent.

Instead of beating its breast and flailing its arms around for being short-changed by the centre, the state government picked up all the Central and state schemes, put its head down, called in officials and party cadres, involved the three-tier panchayati raj system and gave a sense of real participation to the elected Autonomous District Councils, which cover two-thirds of the state and all tribal areas of Tripura.

The impending change of cultures was imminent from the day the BJP planted Tathagata Roy as governor of Tripura. The genteel tone of the Nripen Chakraborty-Manik Sarkar era soon gave way to an inelegant vocabulary. “They should be buried head first in pig’s excreta”, said the new governor by way of his recommendation on how to tackle terrorists.

The writer is a senior journalist and commentator based in New Delhi