KOLKATA: CPM is no stranger to political storms. But this time, it’s a tempest of trolls. A change in the social media display picture of the party’s Bengal unit – swapping the iconic red background for a blue sky and white clouds – has set off a social media frenzy, with netizens seeing shades of irony, humour, and even surrender in the move. For the once-dominant force in Bengal politics, the change is as striking as it is symbolic. The new backdrop – uncannily close to the favourite colours of CM Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress – has led to a digital avalanche of jibes, memes and one-liners.
‘It was just a change in the look of the logo’: CPM scrambles to downplay controversy
Firbe na aar se firbe na (It will not return), posted netizen Soumik Das, borrowing lyrics from a popular Bengali rock song. The message was clear: CPM, which governed Bengal from 1977 to 2011, is struggling to claw back into relevance.
CPM’s social media reach is still formidable. Its Instagram handle “cpimwb” has over 81,300 followers, while its Facebook page boasts 467,000. But the response to the new display picture has been more about ridicule than resonance – 1,100 comments, 448 shares, and a flood of snarky remarks. The party’s electoral fortunes have been equally stark. Once a behemoth in Bengal, it won 26 assembly seats in 2016, clinging to 19.7% of the vote share. But by 2024, CPM had slumped to just 5.7% in Lok Sabha polls.
Sensing the growing chatter, party members scrambled to downplay the controversy. “It was just a change in the look of the logo,” said CPM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty. “We’ve changed it eight times in recent years. Our flag remains a vibrant hue of red. We are not wavering from our commitments to end exploitation.”
CPM state panel member Satarup Ghosh was more blunt: “We don’t think the sky, or its allusion, is patented by Trinamool.” In fact, the change had served its purpose, he said. “You don’t see anything other than the hammer and sickle on Facebook now.”
For a party whose identity has long been tied to its blood-red banner, the absence of even a speck of red in the new display picture is striking. The red flag, a symbol of socialist struggle since the French Revolution, was proudly adopted by CPM – its hammer and sickle etched in the imagination of leftist politics.
But blogger Anirban Hati saw a deeper irony. He recalled how former Kerala CMs EK Nayanar and EMS Namboodiripad slammed author Arundhati Roy decades ago for describing a faded red flag in ‘The God of Small Things’. “Decades later, the Left has no hard-line left,” Hati wrote, noting how Roy’s metaphor now seems uncannily prescient.
Netizen Sandip Ghosh had a more gastronomic take on the matter: “The background fits Didi’s favourite colour. Fish fry and mutton kasa will be on the menu again.”
Whether the red will return – or continue fading into the blue – remains an open question. But for now, the trolls are having a field day.
