Assembly elections: Why Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have similar but divergent characteristics

After independence, the State Reorganization Commission enacted in 1956 set up these new states. Since then, in Tamil Nadu, the Congress Party ruled for the initial 10 years. For the remaining 59 years, non-Congress parties like the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have ruled.

In West Bengal, the Congress ruled for the initial 20 years and non-Congress governments have been in power for the last 49 years.

In Kerala, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) has ruled for 20 years while the CPI (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has been in power for 49 years.

In Kerala alone, there has been a balanced alternation between the UDF and LDF in recent years. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules at the Centre, has never been in power in these three states. While there are other states where major national parties have not held power, there is none where this has added up to more than half the years since 1947.

The sociopolitical history of Tamil Nadu and its predecessor Madras State is fascinating. The Dravidian political movement has its roots in the Justice Party formed in 1916. It championed non-Brahmin rights, social justice and affirmative action, laying the groundwork for Dravidian politics.

This movement gained momentum when the Justice Party merged with the Dravidar Kazhagam (DK), a social reform organization founded in 1944 by E.V. Ramasamy, popularly known as Periyar. The DMK was established in 1949 as a breakaway faction of the DK led by C.N. Annadurai, widely known as Anna.

A further split occurred in the DMK, then led by M.K. Karunanidhi, when the popular matinee idol M.G. Ramachandran (MGR) established the AIADMK in 1972.

In contrast, in Kerala, the first democratically elected Communist government in the world came to power helmed by E.M.S. Namboodripad in 1957. Here the egalitarian and anti-caste movements of Sree Narayana Guru and Ayyankali merged with the Marxist thinking of early socialists in the Congress party.

The character of social integration was different in Kerala because Dalit integration was tied to class-based struggles and land reforms. In Tamil Nadu, Dalits have largely remained outside the DMK/AIADMK mainstream because that transformation has focused on ‘intermediate castes.’

In many ways, Bengal was the intellectual epicentre of ferment in colonial India. Political strains of communism co-existed with nationalism in this cauldron. The Communist Party of India (CPI) gained a foothold through peasant and labour movements in jute mills and dockyards. The Tebagha movement led by the Communist Party agitated for a third (tebhaga) of the harvest being given to landlords instead of half, and just a decade later, an extremist left-wing movement was born in Naxalbari.

West Bengal’s transformation was based on land reform and class struggle, rather than on universalizing education. Like the CPI(M), Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) is also a welfarist party. Unlike it, the TMC is more of a personality-driven than a cadre-based party.

For these elections, the manifestoes of the regional parties in these three states reflect this path dependence. The DMK is industry-friendly, welfarist and populist in its promises. The CPI(M) in Kerala is oriented towards social justice, but its populism is more structural than in Tamil Nadu (not just election oriented). For instance, the DMK manifesto promises ₹8,000 for the purchase of household appliances and a basic income of ₹2,000 for all poor women.

The CPI(M) promises an increase in social security pensions for the elderly, jobs for women and continuing expansion of healthcare as well as education. Mamata Banerjee’s TMC phrases its populism as “10 protigya” or 10 pledges, which include a basic income for poor women, jobs for youth and increased old-age pensions. In that sense, the TMC’s current approach is a bit of a blend of the welfarism of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

All three states face a serious fiscal situation.

Kerala and West Bengal have high debt-to-gross state domestic product (GSDP) ratios of about 40%. Distressingly, neither seems able to reorient policy towards industry so that growth in income can exceed the growth of state expenditure and debt.

Tamil Nadu’s expansion rate of welfarism has outstripped its revenue growth, but it has stayed industry-friendly and can hold its own against Maharashtra, Gujarat and Karnataka in attracting investment. Tamil Nadu’s annual GSDP growth is structurally about 2-3 percentage points higher than that of West Bengal or Kerala.

The three poll-bound states’ challenges are quite different. Tamil Nadu must reduce crony-capitalism and corruption. It must also extend its social schemes to include Dalits. Kerala and West Bengal need to shed their hostility to industry and find ways to grow faster. West Bengal still has some way to go on reducing multidimensional poverty and improving literacy and education.

P.S: “To discard what is unwanted, and to retain what is needed, is what reform means,” said Periyar E.V. Ramasamy.

The author is chairman, InKlude Labs. Read Narayan’s Mint columns at www.livemint.com/avisiblehand.