The state of Bengal in India has been ruled by the communist Left Front for over thirty years, but voters sent it packing by electing Matmata Banerjee leader of the Trinamool Congress(TMC) party which had broken away from the national Congress party. The leftist party was swept away retaining only 62 seats of 294 and suffered major defeats in other states in India. Elections appeared to indicate a growing concern among the poor of India of continuous efforts by industralists to use farm land as the site of their new enterprises. For example, Rahui Gandhi, son of Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, participated in a sit in strike by villagers who were protesting against land acquisition. Ironically, his participation in the strike was an indirect attack on his own mother’s failure to create new legislation which would protect the rights of villagers who are being impacted by the growth of industry in their homeland.
The people of India have for too long suffered under the morass of corruption and close alliance between government and industry that results in economic growth, but not always growth in the standard of living at those at the bottom. India is rapidly become an economic power, but due to its large population faces the prospect of hundreds of millions in the middle class while there are hundreds of millions living in poverty.
Come to think of it, isn’t the same thing happening in modern America?