The Lalgarh standoff and election results demonstrate that the national security and economic security views of the Left parties are dated, irrational and dangerous.

At a recent business school conference, a student said that the Left parties got what they deserved in the last election because any political party that stands in the way of economic growth is unpatriotic. While there are no reasons to doubt the integrity of Left parties, the ongoing operation at Lalgarh represents bypass surgery when preventive cure or a healthy lifestyle over the years would have been less painful, invasive and jarring. The country today pays for their unwillingness to take on the Maoists in West Bengal long after they could and should have. The Left’s stand on economic issues is out of sync with a young and resurgent India. Their honesty and idealism as national parties is a valuable addition to the political debate (unlike some regional parties) but their role will only be fulfilled if they review their dated dogmatism around class struggle, economic development, geopolitics, labour markets and deregulation.

Nandan Nilekani aptly describes the Left’s “Politics of No” as inappropriate for an India that is younger, more confident and less fearful of foreigners. Lalgarh shows that our national security requires dominance of the rule of law.

India’s population has been repackaged as a demographic dividend. But for every Indian to reach her potential, we require massive changes to our education, employability and employment ecosystem. Our current labour laws breed unorganised employment and encourage the substitution of labour with machines. Yet the Left parties project job preservation as a form of job creation and present the self-interest of a minority (8 per cent of the labour force in the organised sector) as the national interest. India’s five labour market transitions (farm to non-farm, rural to urban, unorganised to organised, subsistence self-employment and school to work) are journeys to a better life but India’s people supply chain is broken. The Left parties’ opposition to labour law reform, foreign investment and performance management in the public sector sabotages the demand and supply side of labour markets.

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