Left gets some elbow room

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

India’s Left movement heaved a sigh of relief as the triennial congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), after prolonged discussions, adopted the political resolution drafted by the Politburo with a small but significant change.

Under the party constitution, the congress is the final authority on all matters but it usually accepts without change the formulations drafted by the Politburo and approved by the Central Committee. 

The draft political resolution was prepared by Prakash Karat, who had stepped down as General Secretary three years ago in compliance with the rule that sets a three-term ceiling on the tenure of office-bearers but enjoys more support in the Politburo than his successor, Sitaram Yechury, thanks to the support of the Kerala unit, which is the largest. 

It articulated the Kerala unit’s position that there should be no alliance or understanding with the Congress party to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party, which wields power at the Centre and in many states. This line is predicated on the proposition that the BJP and the Congress are alike since both pursue neoliberal policies.

Kerala had created history by choosing a Communist government through the ballot box in 1957. Since 1980 the state has voted coalitions led by the Congress and the CPI (M) in alternate elections. The state party’s approach is conditioned by the fact that the Congress is its traditional rival for power. 

On several occasions in the recent past Yechury expressed himself in favour of all secular forces, including the Congress, coming together to prevent the BJP’s return to power in next year’s general elections. 

In the organisational report presented to the congress, which is not in the public realm yet, Yechury is believed to have acknowledged that there were differences among the Politburo members on the political line to be adopted towards the Congress party, and this affected political and organisational interventions needed to meet developing situations. 

As party delegates, numbering about 700, gathered at Hyderabad for the congress, there was media speculation on the possibility of the differences between Karat and Yechury leading to a split. 

Addressing the congress, Yechury said neoliberal policies needed to be fought but this could only be done if democratic rights and socialist consciousness remained.

Delegates moved a large number of amendments to the draft resolution. A growing demand for vote by secret ballot is said to have led to softening of the attitude of Karat’s supporters. 

Eventually a compromise was struck. It involved dropping the words “without having an understanding with the Congress party” and retaining the words “without having a political alliance with the Congress party”.

The change will allow the CPI (M) to reach electoral understanding with the Congress party either at national or regional level, without entering into an alliance. 

The compromise smoothened the way for Yechury’s unanimous re-election as General Secretary for a second term. Since Karat and company still dominate the Politburo he may have to look over his shoulders constantly. 

In the early years of Independence, the Communist Party of India was the main opposition group in the Lok Sabha, and it was seen as a possible alternative to the Congress party, which was then the biggest political force.

It lost its primacy in the opposition after the split in 1964 in the wake of the schism in the world communist movement. Disapproving the pro-Soviet stand of the majority of members of the party’s National Council, a minority walked out and formed the CPI (M). 

The two factions adopted contradictory approaches towards the Congress party. The parent body’s pro-Congress attitude led it into supporting Indira Gandhi’s Emergency regime. The CPI(M)’s anti-Congress position made it an unwitting abettor in the rise of Right-wing forces. 

A contrite CPI eventually moved away from the Congress, and the CPI (M), which had emerged as the largest Left party, accommodated it in the alliances under its leadership. 

The CPI(M)’s long monopoly of power in West Bengal and Tripura and its large presence in Kerala helped cloud the fact that the Left has declined nationally. Loss of power in Bengal and Tripura exposed its weaknesses.

The party congress has created some elbow room for the Left in the pre-poll negotiations. But the party needs to arrest its decline and grow nationally to be able to lead a Left revival. Unfortunately, the party congress has failed to draw up an action programme to regain its place at the centre-stage of national politics. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, A-ril 24, 2018.

Left looking for way forward

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

After Communists seized power in Russia, Lenin, leader of the revolution, said, “The way to London and Paris is through Peking and Calcutta.”

The Chinese revolution a few decades later partially fulfilled the prophecy. India’s Communists, on whom fell the task of fulfilling the next part of the prophecy, now lie splintered into groups. While two groups are active in electoral politics, some others are engaged in armed struggles.

The Communist Party of India entered the electoral arena without giving up the objective of armed revolution. The parliamentary system enabled it to score successes in excess of what its strength warranted.

In 1952, with only 3.29 per cent of the votes polled, the CPI won 16 seats in the Lok Sabha and became the largest national opposition group. The Socialist Party, with a 10.59 per cent poll share, got only 12 seats as its votes were scattered widely, while the CPI’s were concentrated in a few states and big cities.

In 1957, the CPI seized power in Kerala state, securing a majority in the State Assembly with a minority of votes. A violent agitation launched by the opposition along with groups incensed by its land and education reform measures was used by the Centre as a pretext to dismiss its government.

In the wake of the Sino-Soviet rift, the CPI split into two. The intense rivalry between the two factions, which differed in their assessment of national and international situations, led the breakaway CPI (Marxist) into inveterate opposition to the Congress party and the remnant CPI supported even the Emergency regime of Indira Gandhi.

As the Soviet Union collapsed and China built up a formidable economy using capitalist methods, Communist parties around the world made ideological readjustments but the CPI-M and the CPI opted to brazen it out. The Left’s unassailable position in West Bengal and Tripura, where it had an unbroken run in power, and in Kerala, where it could come to power in alternate elections, helped to create an impression that all was well.

When the Congress party’s decline created political uncertainty at the national level CPI-M General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet played a catalytic role in the formation of short-lived coalition governments at the Centre. In 2004, he brokered the formation of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government. The Left supported it from outside to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party out of power.

Surjeet’s successor, Prakash Karat, broke the alliance with the Congress in protest against the Indo-US civil nuclear pact. The UPA survived and went on to secure another five-year term. Karat’s subsequent efforts to promote new non-Congress, non-BJP coalitions came to naught.

The Left has been on the decline since then. The ruthless manner in which CPI-M cadres and policemen sought to implement an ill-conceived plan to seize farmers’ land and turn it over to industrialists created a backlash which resulted in loss of power in West Bengal in 2011. This was followed by massive desertions, which damaged the prospects of recovery.

In Kerala, too, there have been desertions but the state party has been making up the loss with new members. The dismal failure of the party’s campaigns against the highly discredited Congress-led state government is indicative of its inherent weakness.

With communalism on the rise and neoliberal policies hitting the poor hard, India now needs a strong Left more than ever. As the largest Left party, it is the CPI-M which has to provide the leadership in this regard but it needs to reinvent itself to undertake the task.

This year the party got a new General Secretary in Sitaram Yechury. Its West Bengal and Kerala units got new Secretaries too. All three were part of the leadership which brought the party to the present sorry state. They are yet to demonstrate the ability to steer the party along a new course.

Yechury has a handicap. He has to work with a Politburo packed with members who did not want him as General Secretary.

The West Bengal unit has decided to readmit former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, 86, and the Kerala unit has decided to take back feisty former minister KR Gowri Amma, 94, both of whom were expelled years ago. Their reinstatement is nothing more than a fine gesture. Young blood and new ideas are needed to save the party. -- Gulf Today, Sharjah, July 21, 2015.

Bleak outlook for the Left

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

 As the Communist Party of India-Marxist, the largest of India’s Left parties, prepares for its triennial national congress, the outlook for the future is bleak as there are no signs of recovery from the setbacks of recent years.

The Communist Party of India was the main opposition in Parliament in the early years of Independence. It stunned the world in 1957 by seizing power in Kerala state through the ballot box. A few years later the party split in the wake of the Sino-Soviet rift, and the breakaway CPI-M, outgrowing the parent body, became the major political force in West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala.

In West Bengal and Tripura, it enjoyed a long run in power. In Kerala, a coalition led by it alternated in power with a rival front led by the Congress party.

As the Congress was reduced to a minority in Parliament, the CPI-M promoted the formation of non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party governments at the Centre but did not participate directly in them. It was the Left’s image as a progressive force that enabled the party’s general secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, to bring together small national and regional parties to form coalition governments.

At one stage these parties wanted West Bengal’s charismatic CPI-M leader Jyoti Basu to be the Prime Minister. The party turned down the suggestion as it did not want to be part of a government in which it did not have a dominant position. Basu later termed the decision a Himalayan blunder.

In 2004, Surjeet’s successor, Prakash Karat, extended Left support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government from outside to keep the BJP out of power. He pulled the plug when the government concluded the civil nuclear agreement with the United States but could not bring the government down. The UPA won a second term in the 2009 elections.

In 2011, the regional Trinamool Congress brought the CPI-M’s unbroken 34-year rule in West Bengal to an end. The Left’s electoral rout was widely attributed to the pro-rich policies the government had adopted and the ruthless manner in which it attempted to seize farmers’ lands for industries.

Dr Ashok Mitra, a former CPI-M Finance Minister and well-known economist, said the party was defeated as its state leaders had deviated from communist policies and principles.

Last year’s Lok Sabha elections revealed shrinkage of the Left’s electoral base. The CPI-M’s vote share dwindled from 5.3% in 2009 to 3.2% and the CPI’s from 1.4% to 0.8%.

The results of two recent by-elections in West Bengal, one to the Lok Sabha and the other to the State Assembly, show that the party’s downward slide is continuing. The Trinamool Congress won both the seats. In the Assembly constituency, the BJP took the second spot pushing the CPI-M down to the third place.

In Kerala, the CPI-M has been debilitated by a feud between party veteran VS Achuthanandan and long-time state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. A new act of the long-running tragi-comedy was played out at the state party conference which has just concluded at Alappuzha.

The small northeastern state of Tripura is the only place where the party is intact. Small pockets of influence which it had elsewhere in the country have been swept away by the rising tide of communal and regional parties.

The state of the Left in Delhi, where Prakash Karat served as the CPI-M’s state secretary before his elevation to the Central Committee in 1985, is illustrative of its sad plight at the national level. Five Left parties jointly put up 15 candidates in the Assembly elections there. Together they polled a paltry 5,405 votes. The state has an electorate of more than 13 million.

Prakash Karat, who became general secretary in 2005, is due to relinquish the post at the party congress scheduled to be held at Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, from April 14 to 19. His poor stewardship of the party is generally attributed to his lack of experience in working class movements.

Sitaram Yechury, who is widely tipped to succeed him, shares Karat’s background. Both were student leaders catapulted into the top leadership without field experience.

The party’s West Bengal and Kerala units have powerful state level leaders but have not been able to throw up a single leader of national stature after Jyoti Basu and EMS Namboodiripad. Basu, who was West Bengal’s chief minister continuously from 1977 to 2000, died in 2010 and Namboodiripad, who was Kerala’s chief minister twice, died in 1998-- Gulf Today. Sharjah, February 24, 2015

Left on the decline

BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today

The Left-wing parties which wield power in three states in India are going downhill. The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which leads the pack, was routed in local self-government elections in Kerala last week. It had received a severe drubbing in the municipal elections in West Bengal in May.

The Left Front, headed by the CPI-M, has ruled West Bengal continuously for more than three decades, setting a record. The Left Democratic Front, also led by it, has been voted to office in Kerala in alternate elections for as long.

Coming after the heavy losses in last year’s parliamentary poll, the reverses in the local elections are a major setback for the CPI-M as it prepares for the Assembly elections, due next year, in the two states. The other Left parties count for little.

The CPI-M has established procedures for evaluation of its performance, identification of mistakes and initiation of remedial action. However, the time available to it to take corrective measures and avoid a third successive reverse is too short.

Lately, the corrective system has not been functioning well. The party’s state and central committees had conducted mandatory reviews after the Lok Sabha poll but no meaningful measures ensued.

When the country gained freedom in 1947, the Communist Party of India was committed to a policy of violent revolution but it participated in the elections. In the first national elections on adult franchise, held in 1952, it emerged as the largest opposition group in the Lok Sabha, winning more seats than the Socialist Party which polled more votes.

Five years later, the world sat up and took notice as the CPI formed the government in Kerala. That was the first time Communists had come to power through the ballot box anywhere. The government, sadly, was short-lived. The Centre dismissed it in 1959 as violent protests against land and educational reforms initiated by it swept the state.

Despite the rude experience, the CPI remained on the parliamentary path. When the party split in two in the wake of the rift in the international communist movement both the factions continued along the same course. Although communist influence in the country shrank, the CPI-M outpaced the parent body and emerged as the strongest political formation in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

In all these states the CPI-M is now facing a problem which other parties that are a part of the power structure have faced before. It is problem resulting from prolonged exposure to and involvement in power politics. As a party with an assured place in the ruling Establishment it tends to attract those seeking political power more than those wanting social and economic changes.

Party documents show that it is losing long-term cadres who are not interested in the loaves of office. The annual dropout rate has been above 10 per cent in Kerala for some year. It is one of several states where more than 40 per cent of the party members are comparative newcomers.

Elections are a costly process. In a five-year period, parties now face three separate elections — one to the Lok Sabha, another to the Assembly and the third to the local bodies. At one time the CPI-M could proudly say it relied entirely on small contributions from the poor. Material that surfaced in the recent past indicates that the Kerala party has benefited from the munificence of some businessmen with dubious backgrounds.

The absence of charismatic leaders like EMS Namboodiripad and Jyoti Basu, who had led the party in Kerala and West Bengal along the parliamentary path in the early years, is a major handicap for the CPI-M in facing today’s challenges. To make things worse, the central leadership is in the hands of persons with little grassroots level political experience.

Under former general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, the CPI-M had carved out a place for itself in national politics by acting as a catalyst in the formation of non-Congress governments when elections threw up a hung parliament. His successor, Prakash Karat, helped in the formation of the last Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government and the party was able to influence its working to some extent.

Karat’s attempt to bring down the UPA government on the issue of the civilian nuclear agreement with the United States backfired. His effort to put together a non-Congress, non-Bharatiya Janata Party alternative in advance of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections also failed. The party needs a win in the Assembly elections to retain its relevance at the national level.--Gulf Today, Sharjah, November 1, 2010.

AHRC: Empty rhetoric more dangerous than political bankruptcy

The following is a statement issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong:

Is there a relation between the residents of the Gaza strip and the Indians? Other than for the fact that the Government of India supports the Palestinian cause, there is no apparent connection between an ordinary Indian and a person living in Gaza. Yet, for politicians in India like Mr. Prakash Karat, the Israeli action in Gaza is an issue of importance to the Indians, one which Karat took the trouble of enlightening the inquisitive Indian public’s minds about, with his reflections on the Israeli invasion of Gaza and its implications for India.

In a statement released last week through the party media People’s Democracy, Karat shed tears for the Palestinians. He accused the political parties in India, obviously other than the party Karat himself leads, for being politically bankrupt. In the article, Karat accuses the Congress and the rightwing BJP for their alliance with the 'imperialist' western forces. When the state governments led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) forcefully evicted farmers from their lands to create special economic zones for foreign entities, Karat, the General Secretary of CPI-M, looked the other way.

The Communist spirit of the British-educated Karat is not worried about the alarming number of extrajudicial executions carried out by the Border Security Force stationed in West Bengal along the Indo-Bangladesh border. Probably, Karat is busy defending Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan, his colleague in Kerala, who is facing prosecution for bribery charges. Vijayan, the State Secretary of the CPI-M , is accused of misappropriating public money to the amount of US$7,500,000.

Indians have their own problems that keep them preoccupied. For example, an estimated 622 million Indians, which amount to 54.8 per cent of the population, earn less than $1.50 a day. For these 622 million individuals, finding a proper meal a day is their immediate concern. It is believed that 150 million Indians live in slums. They have no source for clean drinking water or any other sanitation facilities. It is estimated that 53 percent of the children in India suffer from malnutrition and malnutrition induced sicknesses.

The percentage of the population living in extreme poverty and malnutrition in the country is the highest in the world. It is even higher than the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa where there are no stable governments. A democratic underperformance to such an extent, that it creates living conditions even worse than all the states in Sub-Saharan region means that there is something awfully wrong with the government in India, past and present.

The problem starts with the Indian parliament. One-third of the parliamentarians in the country are criminals, facing charges of rape, murder, corruption or other serious crimes. The seat of democracy, the parliament, has thus become a repository of criminals. For these criminals to remain in power or to return to power whenever they require, two factors are essential -- there must not be a functioning rule of law regime and the ordinary electorate must remain illiterate.

Institutions in the country contribute their share in the above process. For example, most of the Indian media are divided along religious, caste and political lines. Depending upon the picture a media would like to paint to its reader, of caste; political affinity or religion; they defend or prosecute the politicians and their policies. So much so, there is no more 'free media' in the country. It is either a BJP media or a Christian news agency or a mere party propaganda tool. The link between the reader and the journalist is reduced to the money a reader pay to watch or read the so called news.

As for the rule of law regime, it has become defunct in the country since the past few decades. Laws in India works for those who can afford to buy it. The rule of law is sold in police stations, courts, legislative houses and in brothels across the country. In a country where police officers, politicians or their henchmen run most of the brothels, it is natural for the brothels to have a status equal to that of the legislature.

Corruption in public life is so open and apparent in the country that it is no more perceived as evil. On the contrary, it is considered as an essential requirement to get things done in the country. To register birth or death; to file a complaint to the police or to get a telephone connection; to admit a child to school or to get treatment at a government hospital; to book a train ticket or to obtain bail from the court, all require the 'lubricant' to be applied at appropriate places. Corruption is the seminal cord that links the police, the politician and the ordinary person in India.

In addition to the brothels and many other similar institutions in the country where 'justice' is sold and deals are negotiated, the police stations in India play the important role of being the collection houses for bribes and the public relations office for the politicians. If, by mistake, the police act against the whims of the ruling political party, the police stations are attacked and the officers assaulted.

In the past six months there were at least seven such incidents in Kerala state alone. When the officers arrested the cadres of the CPI-M , the ruling party of the state that Karat represents, the party cadres attacked the police station and released the detainees. Courts, judicial process and the rule of law are just meaningless words when it comes to protecting political interest. It is the same throughout all of the country. In Uttar Pradesh it is the Bahujan Samaj Party, in Gujarat it is the BJP and in Assam the Congress party.

The politicians appropriately reward the police officers for their political slavery. For example, the Director General of Police in West Bengal, Mr. Anup Bhushan Vohra, in December 2008 asked his officers to assault ordinary people, whenever required, with the definite intention to break their bones. Vohra made this statement in public, addressing his subordinate officers on December 10, the International Human Rights Day. Please see the link to watch a video that showcases what policing means in India. Arrest of a doctor and a lawyer in India. The officers involved in this incident continue to 'maintain' law and order in the country.

Vohra continues as the chief of police in that state. No police officer in the western countries would continue in their post after making such a speech, instigating his subordinates to violate the law. As for Vohra, officers like him are required in West Bengal, for the state government and the politicians who run it to continue their corrupt way of life. There are obviously a few things to be learned from the imperialist side of the world. But unfortunately for India's politicians, it might not be all that welcome, since sometimes, such lessons could challenge their corrupt way of life.

For politicians in India to continue in their corrupt ways, regular Indians must remain poor, torture must be encouraged and practised in the police stations, courts must not function properly and the electorate must remain divided as Hindus, Christians, and Muslims maintaining their caste hierarchies, no matter which religion they follow. Poverty must thrive in the country so that a lesser number of Indians will have the strength to challenge the slavery imposed by the landlords and the local politicians who steal life and honour from the poor.

What is important for the Indians is that they must be aware of the Israeli actions in Gaza. They must condemn it, since anything else spoken about India by a citizen might challenge politicians like Karat. Opportunity to reflect on one's own living conditions will expose the empty rhetoric of the Indian politicians. Such voices might also challenge the corrupt bureaucracy.

Hence, it is important for the politicians in India to preoccupy the Indian public, filling their minds with irrelevant world affairs that would not fetch them a meal. And for Israel, it must continue invading its neighbor, for that will provide Indian politicians with a subject to be concerned about.

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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.

Whether UPA government stands or falls, the nuclear deal will stay

When Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat flew to Lucknow to seek Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayavati’s blessing for his campaign to oust Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, his friend and Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu N. Ram was in New Delhi for an interview with Bharatiya Janata Party’s Prime Minister-in-waiting L. K. Advani.

The newspaper carried the report of the one-hour in-depth interview in two instalments on Friday, July 11, 2008 (“In the name of energy autonomy, you are surrendering our strategic autonomy”) and Saturday, July 12, 2008 ("Coalition dharma means whatever is agreed upon in a common minimum programme should be implemented”).

The Advani interview is politically as significant as one conducted by The Hindu with Mahatma Gandhi in the last century. The country was still under colonial rule at the time and The Hindu was one of the newspapers championing the cause of freedom.

The Gandhi interviewed was conducted not by the paper’s editor but by B. Shiva Rao, who headed its bureau in New Delhi for many years. The British government was considering some proposals for reform and wanted to know in advance how Gandhiji would respond to them. With the help of a senior ICS officer, Sir Benegal Narasinga Rau, the Viceroy framed a set of questions and passed them on to Shiva Rao.

Shiva Rao, who was Narasinga Rau’s younger brother, himself revealed this many years later.

Advani’s replies to Ram’s questions make it clear that any interruption in the process of operationalization of the Indo-US civilian nuclear deal, resulting from the Left’s withdrawal of support to the UPA government, will be short-lived.

If Manmohan Singh wins the confidence vote on July 22, there is nothing to stop the UPA government from going ahead with that process. If it fails to win the confidence vote, the UPA will have to bow out without completing the process. It will be for the next government to decide what to do.

Since the current Lok Sabha may not be able to throw up an alternative government, the UPA’s defeat may lead to immediate elections. Even if the government wins the confidence vote, it is likely to call early elections at a time considered favourable to it. This may well be later this year.

If the UPA leaves office after operationalizing the nuclear deal, even if it loses the elections, the agreement will remain in force as the successor government will find it difficult to repudiate an international agreement without impairing the country’s credibility in the comity of nations.

If the UPA leaves office without operationalizing the deal, the next government will have the option of pulling out or at least not going ahead with the remaining processes. Given the current political scenario, the next government will be headed by either the Congress or the BJP. Karat’s predecessor, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, was able to prop up minority governments because there were many parties which were not willing to back either the Congress or the BJP. That stage is over. Now there is no party left which has not worked with either of them. Some parties have actually worked with both.

Advani told Ram that if he became the Prime Minister he would seek re-negotiation of the nuclear deal. If the US rejected the suggestion, he would consider amending the Atomic Energy Act. The idea is to put in position a domestic law, which lays down what India should do, to overcome the effects of the Hyde Act, which is a US domestic law that lays down what US government should do. Advani did NOT say his government will scrap the deal.

Karat’s main objection to the deal is that it paves the way for strategic relationship between India and the US, which may include military ties with Israel as well. Advani favours strategic relationship. He told Ram that the last BJP-led government had initiated talks with the US not for a nuclear deal but for a strategic relationship. As for Israel, it was BJP leader A.B.Vajpayee, who, as External Affairs Minister in the Janata Party government, decided to establish diplomatic relations with that country.

Barak Obama, who opposed certain provisions of the Indo-US deal in the Senate, does not now favour any changes in it. This means end of the Bush presidency does not mean end of the deal.