God that failed

They don8217;t make Marxists like Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer any more: spirited, straight talking, unafraid of what the Politburo apparatchik might think of him, his politics backed by a career in public service in which he didn8217;t mark time but shifted a few paradigms. So it is easy for us to understand why Justice Iyer told our correspondent he8217;s angrily disappointed at today8217;s Marxist politicians. But to understand is not to agree. What Justice Iyer finds almost loathsome 8212; 8220;Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee really has nothing to do with Marxism 8212; we find almost lovable. Justice Iyer reckons Bhattacharjee should be 8220;finished8221; politically. We are inclined to think the Bengal CM personifies the CPM8217;s best chance for a political transformation into a modern social democratic party. We have a different take on CPM infighting, too. Justice Iyer is frankly disgusted. In his days, infighting and Marxists constituted an oxymoron. But that wasn8217;t politically healthy. Democratic centralism, like 8216;people8217;s democracy8217; the favourite official self-description of communist dictatorships, never gave much space to democracy. If Pinarayi Vijayan is fighting V.S. Achuthanandan, if the small Left in Bengal is sniping at Bhattacharjee, it at least partly means compulsions of rational economics can8217;t be fudged any more by the party.

Justice Iyer8217;s lament about deviations from Marxist commandments raises a question that has always puzzled close observers of this faith. When do accomplished persons like him start entertaining the idea of apostasy? Marxism in practice 8212; the only test of a political idea is in practice 8212; has proved so ineffectual and some of its failings have extracted such brutal costs, that surely even those awfully circumspect about capitalism would abandon the red flag as a symbol of new hope?

Many have seen the light, of course. Which is why it is hard to find a classical Marxist among today8217;s interesting and fashionable radicals in the West. In India, though, radical still predominantly means some species of Marxist. Perhaps, the clue lies in capitalism. As capitalism develops, as it spreads prosperity, it allows radicalism to escape the trenches of class warfare.