Veteran Left leaders stepped back to push the younger generation on the big stage and youths made up a bulk of the crowd at Brigade Parade Grounds, both these features standing out at the Left-Congress-ISF rally on Sunday.
The “youthful” mood was evident on the podium when octogenarian Left Front chairperson Biman Bose who presided over the meeting led a striking departure from tradition by stepping back after “seeking people’s permission”, and handing over the mic to young actor-activist Badshah Moitra to introduce speakers.
“I can’t express my feelings in words (at you) allowing me a chance to speak on such a stage,” said Badshah as he introduced RSP leader Manoj Bhattacharya to the podium.
Badshah’s role was shared by two other young faces of the Left — Aishee Ghosh and Dipshita Dhar, both SFI leaders.
This change was welcomed by the crowd with loud cheers.
“The older generation of leaders should become friends, philosophers and guides to the younger generation of leaders who have proved their mettle by taking on fascist forces on JNU campus and elsewhere,” said Arijit Dutta, 36, who came from Burdwan.
Despite its plummeting graph since 2011, the Left in the past refused to respond to cries from within and outside the party to bring younger faces to the forefront.
The leadership did concede ahead of the Brigade rally in February 2019, when it included former JNU president and CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar, and the CPM’s tribal face Debalina Hembram in the list of speakers. Kanhaiya could not make it then as he fell ill.
On Sunday, however, Badshah, Aishee and Dipshita were the faces on the podium. On the ground, there were young faces like Md Jiyarul, 28, son of a landless labourer in East Burdwan’s Purbasthali, excited about his “first Brigade”.
“I was a labourer in the construction industry in Kerala but had to come back during the lockdown. My family had voted for Trinamul but we became disenchanted... It is then that I decided to take up the red flag,” said Jiyarul who held a huge CPM flag as party posters covered his body.
The flutter of white flags of the CPM’s students and youth wings — SFI and DYFI — far outnumbered the red flags of the CPM and its allies.
Calcutta University students Meghna Roy, 23, and Samprikta Bose, 22, were among the faces at the Brigade as a part of the organisers’ strategy to make “60 per cent of the crowd” that of students and youths.
“We managed to achieve more than we expected,” said a SFI state committee member but admitted that Abbas Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front did bring in many young men.
“The youth’s disillusionment with the current scenario is helping to make the Left acceptable. Youths want jobs and not doles that Trinamul prefers to offer. Attending the rally in such large numbers goes to prove that the youth are with the Left,” said SFI state secretary Srijan Bhattacharya.
CPM leader Sujan Chakraborty said the crowd-puller Brigade was a rejection of the BJP and the Trinamul.
The BJP reminded the Left of the Abbas factor. “It looked like a Brigade meeting organised by Md Salim for the ISF where the CPM and Congress took part,” mocked BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya.
Apart from Badshah, actors Sabyasachi Chakraborty, Debdut Ghosh, Sreelekha Mitra, filmmakers Tarun Majumder and Kamaleswar Mukherjee, music composer Debojyoti Mishra and singer Kazi Kamal Nasser spoke and performed before political leaders took over the stage.
