On foreign policy, UPA has been clever by half at times

The situation becomes particularly complicated because the UPA regime is bent on following the same set of economic policies that have discredited several regimes in the past, those led by Narasimha Rao, Deve Gowda, Gujaral and Vajpayee. In fact, it would not be wrong to put it this way, no regime pursuing these policies has returned to power in the last 14 years. This should have been a sufficient cause of caution for the ruling UPA but, unfortunately, the latter has failed to take due note of it. Whether it was the increase of FDI limits or a host of other issues, there is enough ground to believe that the regime is unduly acting under the pressure of international finance capital, and is in the process ignoring the vital interests of the country and its people.

Insofar as foreign policy is concerned, the regime has not paid much attention to the task of rejuvenating the NAM despite the anguishing cries of third world countries. At times, it has tried to be clever by half, e g on the issue of sending troops/poll personnel to Iraq or of relations with Israel. Of late, the regime seems to be oblivious of the trap set for it by US imperialists who want to have India in one pocket and Pakistan in the other. That it would start a fresh round of arms race in the subcontinent goes without saying.

It is natural that the Left has to negotiate such a situation with utmost caution, when the communal forces are waiting in the wings, hoping that a rift between the UPA and Left parties would give them a chance to come back. This is a tricky situation for the Left: while we cannot allow an unhindered run of the Fund-Bank policies, we cannot afford to give to the BJP what it eagerly wants.

The recent voting on the patents amendment bill was a case in point. What the Left parties did in Lok Sabha was in fact an attempt to protect the national interest and the people’s interest, as much as possible, from the onslaught of an anti-national draft bill that was prepared by the erstwhile BJP regime. Moreover, while the Left parties strove to get as many pro-people amendments incorporated into the bill as possible (in fact they succeeded in getting several amendments incorporated into the bill), the BJP continued to play a dubious role. Sometimes it maintained deadly silence on the bill and refused to join the nationwide protest against the patents ordinance of December 26, 2004. A few times it also gave overtures to the government that it was prepared to help in the passage of the bill, as its provisions were after all drafted by the BJP led regime. However, it suddenly changed its stance and announced opposition to the bill in view of the popular anger and protest on the issue. This makes it clear that the BJP/NDA are prepared to play any hoax and are waiting for the day the UPA government might fall because of a disagreement between the UPA and Left parties.

This is only one instance of how tricky the current national situation is. It is thus clear that the CPI(M) will have to devise suitable tactics to negotiate the situation so that the ruling alliance is not able to ride roughshod over the people’s interests, nor is the BJP able to take advantage of the discontent. It is also clear that the present national level correlation of forces cannot continue for long, and we have to maintain utmost vigilance so that we are able to meet any sudden development.

This is precisely where one sees the relevance of the coming Party congress. It is no wonder that a Party congress is always an important landmark in the history of a communist Party. It critically reviews the work done, the successes achieved and failures encountered since the preceding congress, and chalks out a tactical line along with political and organisational tasks for the next three odd years. In the CPI(M)’s history too, party congresses have guided the cadres at all levels in normal as well as critical situations. The 16th and 17th congresses chalked out concrete steps to meet the challenge of communal forces who were then controlling the levers of power. And now the 18th CPI(M) congress is going to meet at a time when the communal forces have been ousted from power but have the potential of a comeback, and when the non-Left secular forces are yet to grasp the communal threat in full. The recent assembly polls in Bihar and Jharkhand go to show what losses to India’s body politic the continued dispersal of secular forces may cause. Insofar as the economic policies are concerned, secular parties are yet to demarcate themselves from the communal combine in clear-cut terms.

This and several other issues, national as well as international, will be there before the coming CPI(M) congress that will deal with them and evolve a suitable tactical line to guide the whole Party till the next congress. This is how, basing itself on the Leninist teaching of ‘‘concrete analysis of concrete situation,’’ the CPI(M) has been charting out its course of action through various ups and downs. The experience of the last four decades has amply vindicated the CPI(M)’s stand on the issues related to Indian revolution, and we do hope that the collective wisdom of the Party, as reflected in the coming Party congress, would help us meet the future challenges as well. It is with this hope that the whole Party and all its well-wishers in the country and abroad are looking forward to the event.

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