A REPORT by the Kerala correspondent of The Indian Express, datelined Thiruvananthapuram, March 7, 2026, observed: “Unlike previous assembly elections that were dominated by allegations and counter-allegations over various corruption scandals, the LDF Government 2.0 is seen to have avoided any such major rows, around which the Congress could have built its poll plank.

Instead, the LDF has set the tone of the 2026 Assembly Elections with its development record under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The Left has been attempting to showcase how Kerala is ‘shining’ during its ten-year regime, drawing its comparison with the performance of the previous Congress-led government from 2011-2016. This has put the Congress in a piquant situation. Because, at a time when the UDF should be focusing on highlighting the shortcomings of the ruling coalition, it has been instead forced to defend its previous government’s record nearly a decade after it lost power. Besides, instead of critiquing the LDF’s claims on development, the Congress has been questioning the LDF’s right to publicize its achievements.”

For the coming set of important assembly elections in geographies where the Left has comparatively significant presence, the observation of the Indian Express encapsulates the fundamental clash of paradigms. The mainstream corporate media has undergone a tectonic shift in the course of the neoliberal environment in India, most pronouncedly so during the last twelve years since the Modi government has ascended to power. This shift was facilitated by the systemic nexus between BJP and corporates. Add to this the fact that, BJP received donations worth Rs 6,074 crore in FY 2024-25, a new report by election watchdog Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has revealed. This amount is about a 171 per cent increase from the Rs 2,243 crore in political donations the saffron party received in FY 2023-24, the analysis said. The BJP's declared donations are about ten times the aggregate declared donations of four other political parties, including Congress. Apart from the mainstream, such astronomical access of funds for BJP has enabled its obnoxious social media forays with fake news and hate campaigns.

Understandably, objective reporting has been substituted by what is described as attempts to generate perceptions, integrating them into a narrative. This helps in two ways. Firstly, it deflects the attention from real issues and real questions affecting the lives of the people. Secondly, and perhaps more essentially, it refuses to hold the incumbent to account based on its record of governance. Across the globe this is what post-truth is all about. Today, this is the new normal, and that explains the discomfiture of the UDF in Kerala, as much as it is for BJP in most parts of the country.

But particularly in electoral battles, these underline the crisis of democracy. Democracy is all about choices based on the lived experiences of the people. The incumbent has to be judged based on its record of performance, and not disjointed episodes that undermine the comprehension of the ‘big picture’. Reinforcing this fact, Pinarayi Vijayan has actually nailed down the inherent contradiction, pointing out that the opposition in the Kerala Assembly has not attempted to find faults with the functioning of the government; and hence, the failure to move an adjournment motion to list out its charges.

Overall, this is the broad thrust that has characterised these dark times. In the midst of the long-winding statement of the Prime Minister in Parliament after an inordinate delay, what is significant is not what it has revealed, but what it has concealed. The Prime Minister’s narrative does not throw light on who is responsible for this unnecessary and illegal war. Nor does it provide any clue to the necessity and the achievements of his two-day visit to Israel, which ended 48 hours ahead of US-Israel joint attacks on Iran. Neither does it explain the characterisation, ‘Israel is the fatherland; India is the motherland of democracy.’ At a time when almost the entire world has been decrying the genocide unleashed by the Zionist state on Gaza and facilitation of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, the reference to the COVID-induced period and the surmounting of the problems with what is needed to tackle the extreme vulnerability of supplies in petroleum and LNG for Indian industries and private consumers is notable. This was a classic demonstration of creating perceptions and narratives while deflecting from reality.

 One more important question is the latest discussion initiated by the Union government in the Lok Sabha about the government’s narrative on facing the Left Extremist challenge. Keeping aside, the socio economic, political and ideological dimensions, militarisation as the one dimensional strategy of taking on the challenge, the Home Minister concentrated on his fictitious notions about the CPI(M) and its origins and programme. But the Home Minister was economical with the truth in fighting terrorism and in explaining the massive failure to justify the exceptionally draconian laws, which have turned out to be a non-starter in taking on burgeoning corruption and terrorist incursions in Pahalgam.

 The electoral landscape replicates these basic features, be it in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu or Assam. Divisiveness and mutual hate are the name of the game to gloss over the brazen promotion of corporate interest, eviction and displacement. Assam’s Chief Minister has been the poster boy for this line of the RSS-BJP’s electoral thrust. The unapologetic defence of the double-engine governance there has no semblance of explaining the continued violence that has rocked Manipur.

The coming battles in Bengal and Assam particularly will be based on defending the right of the people to vote, which is sought to be disrupted by the RSS-BJP’s pet theme of infiltration, as is being sought to be actualised through the actions of the Election Commission and its obnoxious SIR exercise.

Therefore, be it Kerala or the other states, the battle lines are clearly drawn to seek the truth and to defend the people’s right to life and livelihood based on the basic tenets of our republican Constitution.

But for the Left, this livelihood question and the holistic development of the people, particularly the working people, will not gather the momentum that is needed for change. Forward to the struggle for a determined defence of people’s livelihood, democracy, and unity in facing these electoral challenges!

(April 01, 2026)