Socialists draw flak for dumping ideologies

“Socialists though small in number have been the biggest and most vocal political opposition but when they joined the Janata Party, they lost their uniqueness. I have had many socialist friends but… See George Fernandes; where he is now, how can he work in a BJP government? And I wonder if Limaye would have approved of Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav,” said Ananthmurthy.

Presiding over the lecture was the noted historian Dr YD Phadke who spokeextensively on the sheer amount of political writing that Limaye had done. “He has written on what might be called Applied Politics more than anyone else has,” observed Dr Phadke.

However, it was Ananthmurthy’s shared thoughts that touched a chord in the audience. His lecture and a film on Limaye was arranged to mark the third death anniversary of the ideologue and parliamentarian who is still revered as a most uncompromising socialist. Ironically, the film had Fernandes reminiscing how Limaye had taught and trained him in his first few months in the Lok Sabha; the training included seemingly insignificant points such as the art of asking questions in Parliament, Fernandes recalled in the hour-long film.

Of today’s socialists, Ananthmurthy said “They are partly responsible for the complete abandoning of the ideology of socialism in the country. There’s a wave now; every political party wants to be judged on its success in globalising India, even intellectuals talk of the Singapore and South Koreaexamples. But do we want to be like them, are we like them culturally? At one time, socialists wanted to empower India, empower the backward castes, empower women.”

Ananthmurthy also pointed out how ideological commitment seems not to matter much these days. There is no mass movement today because “the masses are getting brutalised”; they are not uniting on any great ideological front, he said. “See the Dalits and the Bahujan Samaj Party, see Laloo Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav,” he remarked.

In attempting to show a fundamental conflict in the realpolitik, Ananthmurthy took a swipe at the BJP too. “When you sit in Delhi, you know you can’t be communal. In the streets, you have power only if you are communal but in Delhi you have power if you are not communal. In Delhi you need to shed some idea but you need those ideas to get there,” he said. Limaye would have probably suggested ways out of such a political-ideological conflict, he added.

A writer feels secure and is creative if the worldaround him is so, Ananthmurthy said, but not in a world where films theatres are vandalised and cricket pitches dug up.

“All this is happening in Maharashtra which was home to some of the greatest and tallest liberals in the country. What has happened here?” he asked referring to the recent ultra-vigilante attempts by the Shiv Sena. A truly religious person can never be communal, he said and spoke of how the Hindu philosophy allowed for plurality and decentralisation of thought and belief.

Ananthmurthy also remarked that Limaye was probably “more uncompromising in his beliefs and practices than Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, the doyen of socialists” and it was largely because his wife Champa made it possible for him to be so.

“There are hardly any politicians of his calibre and honesty today.” The Madhu Limaye Smriti Nyas has plans to translate Limaye’s autobiography into English and Hindi soon, Champa Limaye said.