Political Commentary by Ravikumar Pillai
File Photo of Sita Ram Yechury at CPIM Party Congress
The Indian Left, a loose term for the Communists, Socialists and ‘progressive’ fellow travellers, has been in a perennial identity crisis since the days of the Independence Movement.
In the freedom struggle, most of the left-oriented and communist-leaning leaders were part of the Congress-led agitation. But on the way, many of them, restless and itching for more rebellious resistance, felt disillusioned by the Gandhian advocacy of peaceful, non-cooperation and voluntary suffering of persecution by the British.
Further, the leftists were confused by the messaging from the international communist comradery about the urgency to build the world resistance movement against capitalist and liberal democratic ideologies. They decided to part ways with the mainstream freedom movement and fight out their resistance that would, they hoped, lead to armed rebellion by peasants and workers, modelled on the Russian way. That was the first instance of the Indian left missing the bus to be onboard the largest, inclusive nationalist movement.
Subsequently, despite Nehruvian fascination for Soviet ideology and his socialist leanings, the Left remained sceptical of Nehru and his belief in blending capitalist and socialist thought into a composite economic ideology.
With the split between the Russian and Chinese communist movements, the Indian Communist Party split vertically with rival factions clawing to either of the two big brothers. In fact, by and large, the intellectual face of Indian Communism sided with the USSR (of which the current Russia is the pale shadow and a much-tempered down successor) of the Lenin-Stalin pedigree. The more aggressive of the Communists levitated to form the CPI-M, which had an obvious Chinese tilt.
In the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese aggression that led to the occupation of a substantial area of land from the Indian Republic, CPIM was viewed with suspicion by Nehru. This schism was the second setback for the Left and put them away from mainstream politics of India even further.
Their influence in the subsequent decades was confined to West Bengal, Kerala and to a limited extent to parts of Andhra-Telangana, tribal belts of Maharashtra and parts of Punjab. The legislative presence of the Left has dwindled way below its best tally in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Through the years since the 1962 fiasco, the Left in India has remained a largely intellectual component of the democratic ecosystem with its influence confined to the Academic and Trade Union domains.
With Mamata Banerjee upstaging the Communists in their supposed citadel of Bengal where once they were considered invincible, the CPIM lost its clout except in Kerala where the confrontational and tactical positioning of the Party found its moorings in the evolved duopoly between the Congress-led UDF and the CPIM-led LDF.
Though numerically not significant, the Leftist voice in the Parliament, especially in the Rajya Sabha, has always been a restraining, correctional and moderating influence in our democracy.
The leadership and opinion-making ability of Leftist leadership has enjoyed out-sized importance in our democratic narratives, thanks largely to the quality of leadership and the erudition of those at the helm nationally. Whether Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Prakash Karat or Sitaram Yechury, the CPIM’s national leaders have played a critical inclusive and tempering role in policymaking.
With Yechury’s demise, the Indian Left is now at a critical juncture in its continuity and consistency of messaging and resistance. Mamata Banerjee is showing visible signs of political fatigue and Arvind Kejriwal is presently gasping to regain political relevance. In this context, whom the CPIM pitches forward as the new General Secretary is extremely important.
Though it is for that party to decide whom they want to elect as their leader in place of Yechury, it makes immense political sense to have the next GS from West Bengal. Someone like Brinda Karat or Tapan Sen would be their best bet to rejuvenate and make the party battle-ready for the coming elections.
They have for the first time since their historic rout, an opportunity to claw back to power. A strong, articulate and moderating CPIM is in the overall interest of providing vibrancy and balance to our federal Parliamentary alignment.
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