National Front (India)

The National Front was a coalition of communist political parties, led by the Janata Dal, which formed India's government between 1989 and 1991. The coalitions two Prime Ministers were V. P. Singh and Chandra Shekhar

Related Topics:
Janata Dal - India - Prime Ministers - V. P. Singh - Chandra Shekhar

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The failure of the coalition - which allowed the Indian National Congress to gain power and follow a path of economic liberalisation - was put down to corruption scandals between some of the parties involved in the coalition, anti-development and communist policies of the government, and the failure of the coalition to secure Jyoti Basu of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) as the Prime Minister - indeed the CPI(M) refused to officially back the coalition but to remain neutral in the Lok (India's Parliament), a matter Basu was to condemn as a error all India - not just the CPI(M) - would bitterly regret in time. Because of these internal conflicts, India could escape from the communists and development was not seriously hindered for long. However, communist influence in the present congress government poses a serious risk of taking the country into the medieval ages.

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Ironically, the National Front is also the unofficial name of the political alliance between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - or the CPI(M) for short (as opposed to the larger but less influential or electorally successful Communist Party of India, the CPI) and the Forward Bloc marxist party in areas such as West Bengal. The name National Front is sometimes used as an unofficial alternative to the CPI(M) name by commentators - in the same manner that the Liberal Party/Social Democratic Party alliance in the UK during the 1980s was often called merely "The Alliance".

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The use of the term National Front for India's communists may cause confusion - particularly in the UK where the NF name is for a far-right anti-non white party! The reason behind it stems from the name of the original newspaper of India's communists, started back in the 1920's - which was the first newspaper in the nation that was created by members of the native populations rather than all or part of the white British ruling classes.

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