CPM gets rival beatings from Basu8217;s comment

CPM Supremo Jyoti Basu's comments that capitalism is essential for industrialization has proved costly for the party's image.

Marxist stalwart Jyoti Basu8217;s comment that capitalism is essential for industrial development has been seized as a potent weapon by the CPM8217;s rivals in Kerala to ideologically take on the party.

Despite rejoinders from CPM leaders that only those who are utterly ignorant of the party8217;s programme could see any ideological deviation in Basu8217;s statement, Congress and BJP leaders in the state have been quick to dub it as a 8220;confession8221; from a senior Marxist of the futility of pursuing 8220;outdated8221; policies.

For a change, the polemics over socialism and capitalism have pushed the CPM to the defensive unlike on most other occasions when the principal Left party used to set the agenda for ideological and political debates in Kerala.

According to former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Basu8217;s comment amounted to a 8216;candid admission8217; of the failure of socialism as foreseen by Karl Marx and implemented in the socialist block, including the now defunct Soviet Union.

On the contrary, democratic socialism as envisaged by the Congress has become all the more relevant in the present global context, he said.

KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala says the current shift in the CPM8217;s ideological stand coming from the party8217;s senior leaders could trigger an ideological polarisation in the Left block in the coming days, resulting in the death knell of Communism in the country.

BJP state general secretary M T Ramesh said the Communist parties have ceased to have any relevance in the prevailing context with their leaders admitting to ideological failure Humanistic political philosophies followed by India over the centuries was the viable alternative to capitalism and communism, which are but two sides of the same coin, the BJP leader said.

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Kerala Congress M leader K M Mani is of the view that it was time that CPM reinvented itself ideologically to justify its political relevance in the changed times.

Mani, a longtime anti-Marxist camper, known for his political witticisms, said that in the event of the CPM changing ideological preferences, his party was even prepared to join hands with them for Kerala8217;s development.

Over the Basu-Bhattacharjee comments, the CPM has had to face barbed comments not only from its traditional opponents, but even from the Left allies like the RSP and Forward Bloc.

RSP veteran K Pankajaskhan had gone to the extent of saying he was at a loss to know from which Marxist-Leninist text these senior leaders drew the conclusion that capitalism was inevitable for economic development.

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He said it was difficult to dismiss this pronouncement coming from a leader like Jyoti Basu as a casual remark. It could only be taken as an indication of the new directions to which that party was heading.