An end foretold
The Left is dead, killed from within by leaders who slowly strangled the communist movement
by DIPTENDRA RAYCHAUDHURI
“Death is only a beginning, afterwards comes the hard part.” – Jed Rubenfeld (The Death Instinct)
THE communist movement in India might have finally breathed its last on May 13, 2011, but an apparition by the name of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will remain for some more time in the Indian political scenario. And its leaders will now have to live the hard part, the afterlife, for a communist party that has no capability of launching a radical movement is like a body without a soul.
The communist movement had played a great role in this country. Notwithstanding some major mistakes, its glorious tradition of siding with and working for the uplift of the downtrodden, the farmers and the labour class will be remembered by future generations. They will also remember how the party that was its soulmate backstabbed it, particularly during the second half of the first decade of the new millennium.
Yet, can electoral defeat be equated with the death of the movement? Prakash Karat does not agree that the movement is dead. The General Secretary of the CPI(M) tried to put up a brave face and said, “Those who have written the epitaph of the CPM and the Left are wrong. We will prove it.” This same General Secretary failed to protect the movement from the shining knives of his comrades.
Another view came from Gurudas Dasgupta. The leader of the CPI Parliamentary Party and General Secretary of the largest Left union, AITUC, said, “This premise is based on what has happened in Bengal. But Bengal is not India, India is not Bengal.”
But do the communists retain enough credibility for people to trust them? Communist ideology makes a radical movement against the system an integral part of its existence. The rise of the communists in India is replete with instances of such movements. Tebhaga or Telengana were just major ones.
Numerous smaller ones in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Bengal and other places shaped the future of the communists from the 1930s to the ’70s. Internal divisions in the undivided party occurred, and the splits weakened it. Yet, Bengal, Kerala and Tripura voted for it in elections. From the late 1970s, communist-ruled States became a common phenomenon. Even the Centre had communist Ministers during 1996-98, including a Home Minister of the country. Bengal made history of sorts by reposing its faith in legendary democratic ruler Jyoti Basu five times.
People were voting for the party in some regions of the country because of its credibility, earned from its tradition of fighting for the common man, the poor, farmers, tribals and industrial labour. Basu was not a revolutionary but he had some basic training in working for the underprivileged, and that heightened his credibility among the masses. Under his aegis, the “movement” underwent a metamorphosis but remained alive through demands for “more power for the States” or allegations of “reluctance of the Centre to protect the interests of the common man”.
The same line was adopted by the Kerala and Tripura units, and also by other States where the party or the Left as a whole was weak. It had no revolutionary undertone, but a simple pro-poor leaning. And that kept the credibility of the party intact despite charges by the media of arrogance, misrule and corruption.
Entry of neo-liberalism
And then everything changed. A new set of leaders started pushing the party towards the opposite end. Economic reforms had happened and globalization became the mantra. The elite had started projecting a neo-liberal path as the only one. And a large section of the CPI(M), not well versed in the reality of the vast majority of Indians, accepted this.
From 2004 to 2008, the period when the Left supported a Congress government, the party backstabbed the glorious tradition of the communist movement. The leaders decided to confront the reality instead of blindly opposing it. That was what they principally decided in 2005 and later gave final shape to. It was a ploy to accept the changes around them.
Then they supported the Patents Bill, the SEZ Bill, kept silent as big Indian players entered the retail sector, and each time put forward “notes” and “amendments”. It was just like the Social Democrats who try to make the system less painful by reforming it. The Social Democrats, however, do not pretend to be great revolutionaries or angels, and they do not hide their true intention.
Indian communists thus, in the last decade, stood against the very values taught by the communists of earlier generations. Now, they do not have any moral authority to point fingers at others. If they try to evoke the glory of Tebhaga - Telengana, what will be evoked is laughter as people will remember Nandigram for decades. If they talk of fighting the feudal set-up in the rural areas, the populace will mockingly point out that these are the very people who supported the establishment of SEZs or neo-zamindari of the industrialists in 21st century India. If they raise the issue of fighting “imperialism”, people will reject their claim as they voted for the Patents Bill. If they talk of fighting the industrialists or tax concessions, people will read out the agreement signed with Tata Motors for a proposed Nano factory at Singur.
Modern-day communists think they are beyond reproach. This makes them so near-sighted that they miss the writing on the wall. In my book, Understanding CPI(M), published in January 2010, I predicted the impending debacle. The prediction does not add to my credit, because it was writ large on the wall. But the communists, instead of acknowledging the truth, tried to create myths and survive on them.
RADICAL communists have always terrorized people in their strongholds. They did it in the name of class interest. But, in the past decade, their legendary “organization”, now bereft of proper ideological moorings, turned into a collection of wily people with steely nerves, and a tyrannized populace. The degree of this tyranny can only be experienced, and can never be assessed by visitors. That is why many pundits failed to fathom it, even in 2011. This tyranny was at its apex in Bengal (in Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Hooghly and Bardhaman districts), for the support system was provided by the police and administration.
I hope my readers still remember Nandigram, where the Leftists killed peasants and unleashed unimaginable atrocities. For many months, Sitaram Yechury and others briefed the press about the heinous character of the movement, about the conspiracy of the opposition parties, and the demonic role played by the Maoists. Since then, in every election, the Left has been thrown out from that area, and now the whole district of East Midnapore has rejected them outright. In this Assembly election, out of 16 seats in the district, the Left failed to win a single one. So, have the people voted for heinous conspirators and the Maoists? Yechury’s explanations are awaited.
The reality of Nandigram was the opposite. Such was the degree of repression by the CPI(M) cadre that the people carried on their revolt for years and finally liberated the area. The movement has assumed added sheen after these electoral results.
India’s modern-day communists have thus become a symbol of oppression, while Nandigram-Singur have become the new Tebhaga-Telengana. As for the proposed plant at Singur, the communist government could not even divulge the details of the agreement with Tata Motors. Whatever has become public shows how the State government acted in just the opposite way to what Karat preaches in Delhi about tax exemptions.
Kerala and VS
In Kerala, the Left has done well this time. It has almost broken the tradition of change after every five years. However, the credit goes entirely to VS Achhuthanandan, who has a much larger image than his party. He is the symbol of the Left movement in that State, and is known as a crusader against corruption. Just like Bengal, Kerala has seen the rise of a group of neo-liberals (though they are not in love with the Congress, unlike their Bengal comrades) and Achhuthanandan has fought these tendencies as Chief Minister. For that, the CPI(M) heckled him for years and the General Secretary of the party joined the bandwagon of the hecklers in the past few years. This legendary leader was thrown out from the Politburo. By voting for Achhuthanandan, the people of Kerala have shown their disdain for these party bureaucrats sitting in Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi. A veteran Congress leader from the State confided that their narrow escape from the jaws of defeat was in total contrast with what they expected, an overwhelming victory. And he felt that the people voted for Achhuthanandan not only against the Congress, but also against the organizational leaders of the CPI(M).
But the veteran leader is now 87 years old and by the next Assembly elections will be 92. Too old to lead. And without him the party will be reduced to just an ordinary alternative to the Congress in the State, without any claim to any glorious tradition.
What now?
In both Bengal and Kerala, CPI(M) leaders are expressing a desire to join other parties. Bengal CPI(M) leader Debendranath Biswas, who did not contest the election, wants to join the Trinamool Congress as he cannot serve the people by staying in the CPI(M) as it has become too corrupt.
So Karat has a long way to go to keep alive the spirit of the dead movement. He may try to inject a minimal dose of “Leftism” in his party. But the discredited lot of Bengal, mainly Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Biman Bose and Nirupam Sen, are likely to resist that. As for Pinnarai Vijayan (the all-powerful Secretary of Kerala and friend of Karat), he will wait for Achhuthanandan’s eclipse due to age and then will try to follow a neo-liberal agenda.
Karat, who has always tried to act as a hardliner, has little chance of seeing fruitful “rectification” taking place in his party. He himself is a man from the organization, and he is not capable of understanding the simple fact that the organization is no more an asset for him but a liability increasingly loathed by the common man. It is equally true in Bengal and in Kerala.
Yet, resurrection of the communist movement cannot be entirely ruled out. If it does get another lease of life, it will not be at the behest of the CPI(M).
The Left is dead, killed from within by leaders who slowly strangled the communist movement
by DIPTENDRA RAYCHAUDHURI
“Death is only a beginning, afterwards comes the hard part.” – Jed Rubenfeld (The Death Instinct)
THE communist movement in India might have finally breathed its last on May 13, 2011, but an apparition by the name of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) will remain for some more time in the Indian political scenario. And its leaders will now have to live the hard part, the afterlife, for a communist party that has no capability of launching a radical movement is like a body without a soul.The communist movement had played a great role in this country. Notwithstanding some major mistakes, its glorious tradition of siding with and working for the uplift of the downtrodden, the farmers and the labour class will be remembered by future generations. They will also remember how the party that was its soulmate backstabbed it, particularly during the second half of the first decade of the new millennium.
Yet, can electoral defeat be equated with the death of the movement? Prakash Karat does not agree that the movement is dead. The General Secretary of the CPI(M) tried to put up a brave face and said, “Those who have written the epitaph of the CPM and the Left are wrong. We will prove it.” This same General Secretary failed to protect the movement from the shining knives of his comrades.
Another view came from Gurudas Dasgupta. The leader of the CPI Parliamentary Party and General Secretary of the largest Left union, AITUC, said, “This premise is based on what has happened in Bengal. But Bengal is not India, India is not Bengal.”
But do the communists retain enough credibility for people to trust them? Communist ideology makes a radical movement against the system an integral part of its existence. The rise of the communists in India is replete with instances of such movements. Tebhaga or Telengana were just major ones.
Numerous smaller ones in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Bengal and other places shaped the future of the communists from the 1930s to the ’70s. Internal divisions in the undivided party occurred, and the splits weakened it. Yet, Bengal, Kerala and Tripura voted for it in elections. From the late 1970s, communist-ruled States became a common phenomenon. Even the Centre had communist Ministers during 1996-98, including a Home Minister of the country. Bengal made history of sorts by reposing its faith in legendary democratic ruler Jyoti Basu five times. People were voting for the party in some regions of the country because of its credibility, earned from its tradition of fighting for the common man, the poor, farmers, tribals and industrial labour. Basu was not a revolutionary but he had some basic training in working for the underprivileged, and that heightened his credibility among the masses. Under his aegis, the “movement” underwent a metamorphosis but remained alive through demands for “more power for the States” or allegations of “reluctance of the Centre to protect the interests of the common man”.
India’s modern-day communists have thus become a symbol of oppression, while Nandigram-Singur have become the new Tebhaga-Telengana.
The same line was adopted by the Kerala and Tripura units, and also by other States where the party or the Left as a whole was weak. It had no revolutionary undertone, but a simple pro-poor leaning. And that kept the credibility of the party intact despite charges by the media of arrogance, misrule and corruption.
Entry of neo-liberalism
And then everything changed. A new set of leaders started pushing the party towards the opposite end. Economic reforms had happened and globalization became the mantra. The elite had started projecting a neo-liberal path as the only one. And a large section of the CPI(M), not well versed in the reality of the vast majority of Indians, accepted this.
From 2004 to 2008, the period when the Left supported a Congress government, the party backstabbed the glorious tradition of the communist movement. The leaders decided to confront the reality instead of blindly opposing it. That was what they principally decided in 2005 and later gave final shape to. It was a ploy to accept the changes around them. Then they supported the Patents Bill, the SEZ Bill, kept silent as big Indian players entered the retail sector, and each time put forward “notes” and “amendments”. It was just like the Social Democrats who try to make the system less painful by reforming it. The Social Democrats, however, do not pretend to be great revolutionaries or angels, and they do not hide their true intention.
Indian communists thus, in the last decade, stood against the very values taught by the communists of earlier generations. Now, they do not have any moral authority to point fingers at others. If they try to evoke the glory of Tebhaga - Telengana, what will be evoked is laughter as people will remember Nandigram for decades. If they talk of fighting the feudal set-up in the rural areas, the populace will mockingly point out that these are the very people who supported the establishment of SEZs or neo-zamindari of the industrialists in 21st century India. If they raise the issue of fighting “imperialism”, people will reject their claim as they voted for the Patents Bill. If they talk of fighting the industrialists or tax concessions, people will read out the agreement signed with Tata Motors for a proposed Nano factory at Singur.
Indian communists in the last decade stood against the very values taught by the communists of earlier generations. Now, they do not have any moral authority to point fingers.
Modern-day communists think they are beyond reproach. This makes them so near-sighted that they miss the writing on the wall. In my book, Understanding CPI(M), published in January 2010, I predicted the impending debacle. The prediction does not add to my credit, because it was writ large on the wall. But the communists, instead of acknowledging the truth, tried to create myths and survive on them.
RADICAL communists have always terrorized people in their strongholds. They did it in the name of class interest. But, in the past decade, their legendary “organization”, now bereft of proper ideological moorings, turned into a collection of wily people with steely nerves, and a tyrannized populace. The degree of this tyranny can only be experienced, and can never be assessed by visitors. That is why many pundits failed to fathom it, even in 2011. This tyranny was at its apex in Bengal (in Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Hooghly and Bardhaman districts), for the support system was provided by the police and administration.
I hope my readers still remember Nandigram, where the Leftists killed peasants and unleashed unimaginable atrocities. For many months, Sitaram Yechury and others briefed the press about the heinous character of the movement, about the conspiracy of the opposition parties, and the demonic role played by the Maoists. Since then, in every election, the Left has been thrown out from that area, and now the whole district of East Midnapore has rejected them outright. In this Assembly election, out of 16 seats in the district, the Left failed to win a single one. So, have the people voted for heinous conspirators and the Maoists? Yechury’s explanations are awaited.
The reality of Nandigram was the opposite. Such was the degree of repression by the CPI(M) cadre that the people carried on their revolt for years and finally liberated the area. The movement has assumed added sheen after these electoral results.
India’s modern-day communists have thus become a symbol of oppression, while Nandigram-Singur have become the new Tebhaga-Telengana. As for the proposed plant at Singur, the communist government could not even divulge the details of the agreement with Tata Motors. Whatever has become public shows how the State government acted in just the opposite way to what Karat preaches in Delhi about tax exemptions.
Kerala and VS
In Kerala, the Left has done well this time. It has almost broken the tradition of change after every five years. However, the credit goes entirely to VS Achhuthanandan, who has a much larger image than his party. He is the symbol of the Left movement in that State, and is known as a crusader against corruption. Just like Bengal, Kerala has seen the rise of a group of neo-liberals (though they are not in love with the Congress, unlike their Bengal comrades) and Achhuthanandan has fought these tendencies as Chief Minister. For that, the CPI(M) heckled him for years and the General Secretary of the party joined the bandwagon of the hecklers in the past few years. This legendary leader was thrown out from the Politburo. By voting for Achhuthanandan, the people of Kerala have shown their disdain for these party bureaucrats sitting in Thiruvananthapuram and Delhi. A veteran Congress leader from the State confided that their narrow escape from the jaws of defeat was in total contrast with what they expected, an overwhelming victory. And he felt that the people voted for Achhuthanandan not only against the Congress, but also against the organizational leaders of the CPI(M).
But the veteran leader is now 87 years old and by the next Assembly elections will be 92. Too old to lead. And without him the party will be reduced to just an ordinary alternative to the Congress in the State, without any claim to any glorious tradition.
What now?
In both Bengal and Kerala, CPI(M) leaders are expressing a desire to join other parties. Bengal CPI(M) leader Debendranath Biswas, who did not contest the election, wants to join the Trinamool Congress as he cannot serve the people by staying in the CPI(M) as it has become too corrupt.
So Karat has a long way to go to keep alive the spirit of the dead movement. He may try to inject a minimal dose of “Leftism” in his party. But the discredited lot of Bengal, mainly Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Biman Bose and Nirupam Sen, are likely to resist that. As for Pinnarai Vijayan (the all-powerful Secretary of Kerala and friend of Karat), he will wait for Achhuthanandan’s eclipse due to age and then will try to follow a neo-liberal agenda.
Karat, who has always tried to act as a hardliner, has little chance of seeing fruitful “rectification” taking place in his party. He himself is a man from the organization, and he is not capable of understanding the simple fact that the organization is no more an asset for him but a liability increasingly loathed by the common man. It is equally true in Bengal and in Kerala.
Yet, resurrection of the communist movement cannot be entirely ruled out. If it does get another lease of life, it will not be at the behest of the CPI(M).
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