Those unreliable, moody Communists

For all the breakfast meetings that the Left holds with the Prime Minister, its own assessment of the UPA government led by Dr. Singh is not flattering to the genteel economist-politician. ‘‘It cannot be overlooked,’’ says the CPM’s draft resolution, ‘‘that the Congress-led government’s policies on the economic front actually undercut the support for democratic and secular forces’’.

That assessment should be galling to the Congress. Not only are the Marxists suspicious of the economic policies of the Congress and the government it leads at the Centre, but they believe that these policies will weaken the very ‘‘democratic and secular forces’’ for whose safety this coalition has been hammered out. But questioning the very sine qua non of the Manmohan Singh government the Communists are putting Dr. Singh on notice that the coalition should not expect a full five-year support to it from the Left.

If the Congress workers have any doubt, read the draft carefully. It says that its support to the UPA government is only to ‘‘keep the communal combine in check’’ (read NDA here), although the party felt that the Congress-led coalition was following the previous government’s anti-people policies. For the time being it would continue to criticize and oppose these economic policies. It would ‘‘wage a struggle on both fronts – against communalism and against renewed push for liberalisation.’’

The next stage would be to seek and concretise an alternative. ‘‘The party should strive for an alternative by strengthening the party and the Left, and rallying other secular, non-BJP forces on a common policy platform and by having joint campaigns and movements.’’ Basing on the hope that the BJP would suffer another setback in the February elections, and counting on greater Left unity, the Marxists are planning to barge into other states than the two in which alone they are a force as either the government or the main opposition. The fact that a platform against the economic reforms gave the Left 60 seats—the largest ever in the last half a century—the party is approaching the April conclave with a strategy to occupy the main opposition space at the national level too.

Obviously to achieve this big leap forward, the Marxists have to confuse the public by asserting that the CPM policy is the right one and that the Congress is ‘‘anti-people’’ so far as it deviates from the Statist economy into liberalism. The Congress is described as one of the ‘‘bourgeois-landlord parties’’ in the country. As such nothing much could be expected from it in regard to ‘‘democratic’’ policies – read Marxist policies. Echoing an old CPI strategy under which they sought to infiltrate the Congress and push it increasingly to adopt Leftist policies, the Marxists would seek to champion the concerns of the middle class — like the high interest rates for EPF, opposition to any downsizing either in industry or in government, reservations in private sector, and so on. The middle class, which is concerned over the impact of economic changes on its future, would be its target to gain the main opposition space.

But soon after framing such a strategy, the CPM draft bemoans the irrelevance of unworkability of such a class wise doctrine in Indian conditions. Remember the CPM plight in several states where it has to hang on to the coat-tails of even regional parties. In Bihar for instance, it could with great difficulty get two seats allotted to it in the RJD’s domain. Denouncing the caste appeal which is widespread, the draft says that this narrow appeal ‘‘hampers the development of the democratic movement’’ (read its version of class based socialism) ‘‘and helps perpetuate patronage politics revolving around caste leaders.’’

This is the dilemma into which the Marxists fall due to their political understanding based on imported doctrines. They denounce caste-based politics and claim that it hampers their movement. Yet they are the good friends of caste based politicians like Lalu Prasad Yadav. In addition in states like West Bengal they actively promote minority-ism going to the extent of forcing their own chief minister to withdraw his observation against the proliferation of mosques along the Bihar-Bengal and Bangladesh borders and flow of funds into these mosques.

For the Congress, there is little reason to find any words of cheer in the Marxist draft. How will it react when its main ally in keeping it safe in power in Delhi equates it with the BJP? ‘‘Notwithstanding certain policy measures in the CMP, the government is unwilling to change course and, in essence, pursues the same policies as that of the Vajpayee government.’’ Even the political agenda of the Congress is questioned. ‘‘The fight against the communal forces is conditioned by the vacillations and lack of ideological firmness of the Congress. The UPA government ….. cannot be relied upon to carry out a consistent struggle against the communal forces.” The Marxist draft has thus discredited the Congress and its government on both fronts: fighting ‘‘communalism’’ and following ‘‘democratic’’ policies. The implication therefore is clear enough for the Congress: the Marxists are putting the Manmohan Singh government on notice that its continuance is at the Left’s mercy. At still another level the draft completely negates the good conduct certificate of Dr. Singh. How will the good doctor react when the Marxists themselves are telling the whole world that what he said just 15 days back was all a joke?

The writer, a Rajya Sabha MP and convener of BJP’s think tank, can be contacted at bpunjemail.com