In Bangladesh, whose politics was for farmers and laborers, i.e. why did the Leftist politicians fail to get the support of the public? Why is he in a state of decline in national politics? Instead of emerging as an alternative force, many of them have merged and disappeared within the Awami League and BNP.
The main weakness of the Left is the lack of creative pursuit of knowledge. It is not only the lack of theoretical knowledge, but also the lack of knowledge acquired through life experience. It took time for them to understand that East Bengal was becoming a colony of Pakistani rulers and it was imperative to seize state power, dismantle the state and establish a democratic state of the people. They also failed to deal with the problems of nationality. The subcontinent was a multi-racial country and the rulers presented the Indian subcontinent as a two-nation country. Pakistan itself is a de facto, bureaucratically governed state of four separate nations. It was the responsibility of the Left to free the people from the rule of that state. But they failed to fulfill their responsibility.
They were certainly part of the national independence movement, but the leadership passed into the hands of the bourgeois nationalists. During the British period, these leftists were the main enemies of these nationalists, just as they were during the rule of Pakistan. Leftists want to bring about social revolution and capitalists want to capture the power of the state while keeping the social structure intact. State repression of the Left knew no bounds. The rule of the capitalists did not end even in Bangladesh. The rule of the capitalists repressed the leftists. At that time the media had unlimited influence. And the rulers used the media machinery to project the Left as traitors and atheists.
The politics of the Left should have been completely different from that of the capitalists, but it did not happen. Especially because of his eagerness to participate in the elections, he distanced himself from it. The British rulers laid a trap for the nationalists by giving them exemption in elections. The nationalists fell into that trap and drifted away from the movement, eager to participate in the elections. They then split on communal lines, eventually leading to Partition. The split was most damaging to the Left. Now they are getting dependent on elections. He had this passion for elections even during the time of Pakistan. Local and foreign rulers, along with their supporters, had created a cultural ideology that was difficult for material leftists to break.
Above all, the reformist tendencies that emerged among the left after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rift created by the Sino-Russia split were the worst hit. It was easy for the bourgeoisie to identify ‘national’ enemies because they were foreigners. But it was difficult for the Left to identify class opponents because these opponents were local and often their ‘own’ people.
