Left and Centrist ideologies refuse to acknowledge the complexity of contemporary reality

Literature, more than ideology , reveals the evolution of human race and its underlying philosophy. Thoppil Bhasi's landmark play Puthiya Akasham, Puthiya Bhumi, which was produced by KPAC, ends with a bomb explosion that destroys an under-construction dam.
The dam, in the play , symbolizes material progress. The villain of the story was a man who refused to give away agriculture land, which was to be submerged due to construction of the dam, as he presumably stood against the March of Human Civilization.Nature, in Bhasi's play , was to be acquired, pruned and tamed for man's sole progress.
In the last 50 years since the play was enacted, Kerala has moved on, though the underpinnings of the society was shaped largely by a centrist and leftist ideology.
For instance, the theory that big dams would bring in perennial water supply is today being questioned worldwide. A recent study by International Rivers, said that the global dam industry had in fact choked half of earth's rivers. But this paradigm shift in the developmental narrative has not made any impact on the thought process of policy makers af filiated to UDF and LDF.
"We had chosen our path right after independence, giving away Nachilnadu, a rich rice bowl in south Kerala, to Tamil Nadu and instead acquired tea estates in and around Devikulam during the formation of the state. By this reconstitution of areas, Kerala chose cash crop and service sector over food security right from the beginning," says social activist and writer Civic Chandran.
He points out how LDF today is at crossroads without having an ideology that is in tune with modernity , its new concerns and aspirations. At one of the spectrum is the JCB politics of idealism headed by V S Achuthanandan and the other end is Pinarayi Vijayan who represents corporate Stalinism.
"If you look at the history of Marxist ideology it was born at a time when the industrial age was beginning to take over the world. The world has moved beyond the concerns raised by an average worker working in a smoke-stack factory, who lived in the hope of a communist utopia. Today we are living in a knowledge era and the new generation plays a major role in the world they are shaping," Chandran says.
An analysis of both UDF and LDF manifestos show that there is not much difference between them, in terms of ideology and shift in policy.
"The perception that LDF stands for the poor is a clever nostalgic brand that has lost its currency . The new Left too is a misnomer which is shallow to the core," says Left fellow traveller and thinker N M Pearson.
With the Gulf boom, easy money flowed into the coffers of labour unions. As result, bad work ethics and addiction to alcohol led to the destruction of the labour movement in the state that is now taken over by migrant work force.
"The Left too needs to evolve and integrate with radical democracy . All the grass root movements should be given a space in a plural democracy .Today we have politics of caste and religion. The BJDS and IUML are prime examples of this identity politics that would pave the way for vote banks," Pearson points out.
Social activists points out that the much-touted land reform act never really helped Dalits and tribals who were the real sons-of­the-soil.Tribal leader C K Janu who was panned by the CPM recently for joining hands with NDA asked CPM leaders to think deeply why tribal organisations were forced to join a `fascist' coalition like NDA?
The ethos behind S K Pottekkatt`s classic Visha Kanyaka, had a relevance in the last century, wherein impoverished settlers from central Kerala battled against the hostile nature for survival. But today nature itself is in danger. "The seeds of a new ideology perhaps need to be sown looking at this new reality," Chandran says.