Opinion Left-handed compliment

While editor R. Balashankar points out in the preface that he is not writing an obituary for the Left,and that he strongly believes in the need for a pro-poor,anti-elitist,egalitarian political philosophy,he and other writers argue that Communism,as an ideology,has become obsolete and that the CPM is just another bourgeois party today. “Will the CPM defeat,if it happens,usher in the bipolarity in polity? Will it accelerate the disintegration of the so-called third front?…These are issues that will come to dominate political discourse post-poll,” he says. The article says the party has lost its identity with the onslaught of globalisation,adopted all the vices of other opportunistic parties,accepted the role of big money in manipulating electoral outcomes and ceased to have an alternative vision of governance.

While its earlier leadership viewed minority and majority communalism as equally dangerous,the party’s latter-day pragmatists courted minorityism while hurting Hindu sentiments. It did not seize the 2008 financial turmoil in the capitalist world to provide an alternative economic paradigm because of its own ideological bankruptcy,says the article. “In a society with such vast economic disparities,with many even in the capitalist bloc getting disillusioned with the unsustainable consumerist splurge,there is relevance for a people-oriented left political platform. To fill that space the Communists themselves have to change,” it says.

Can’t-do spirit

Another article notes that the idea of the formation of a third front is likely to die a natural death after the possible defeat of the Left,which has provided the ideological anchor to these efforts. Comparing the Indian communists with their comrades in China and the erstwhile USSR,the article says that these nations inculcated a strong sense of patriotism along with Marxian theory. Indian Marxists,on the other hand,stuck to the original Marxian assessment of India as a civilisation that needed to be smashed before anything good could emerge from it,it says.

Another article notes that the people of China,who are now twice as rich as Indians,were twice as poor as India in 1947. “In contrast to the CPM and its smaller cousin,the CPI,the Chinese Communist Party is unafraid of globalisation. Had the CPM and the CPI not sought to throw the baby out with the bathwater,by opposing every effort at economic liberalisation,they would have been a powerful force in both urban as well as rural India,” it says.

The article also claims that Indian communists lack the ability to theorise. “It is somewhat remarkable that India only ever produced one communist thinker,M.N. Roy,whose writings even today repay study and whom Nehru helped financially in his impoverished declining years. Instead we had the likes of Jyoti Basu and E. M. S. Namboodiripad,with absolutely nothing of significance to say and unable to deliver anything memorable,” it says. The Left commands a disproportionate influence given its sympathisers in academia and the media,however,“there is no recognisable Indian school of communism comparable to say,Gramsci-influenced Italian communism or Mao’s Chinese communism,” the article argues.

Value education

The RSS journal in Hindi,Panchjanya,has also brought out a special issue,focused on the question of corruption. The mood is set by the editorial,which says corruption cannot be eliminated by merely staging public protests or enacting more stringent laws. A permanent solution lies only in imparting the right cultural and moral value systems,for which men of exceptional character and behaviour would need to lead by example. “We need to cultivate the right social consciousness,the right thinking wherein (the)corrupt are looked down upon and people are encouraged not to tolerate corruption of any kind,” he writes.

One article argues that corruption can be attributed directly to the declining moral standards of a society that places more value on money and material achievements than on religiosity. Another piece says that the political system is the problem,and therefore,it cannot find a solution to corruption. The writer mentions the campaign against corruption spearheaded by noted social activist Anna Hazare,and says that this movement has widespread public support. But,he laments media devotes disproportionate time and space to trivial issues. It was preoccupied with cricket and marginally interested in the forthcoming elections in five states,but not in the fight against corruption.

Compiled by Manoj C.G.