The controversy that senior Kerala CPI(M) leader Saji Cheriyan triggered earlier this week by critiquing the Constitution largely died down following his resignation from the Pinarayi Vijayan Cabinet. The remarks, however, harked back to a time when Indian Communists, still trying to figure out their place in a fledgling parliamentary democracy, viewed the Constitution with scepticism. At a party function in Pathanamthitta on July 4, Cheriyan said, “A beautiful Constitution has been written in the country. I would say the Constitution has been written in such a manner as to ensure that the maximum number of people are looted. What the British prepared, Indians penned down. Over the last 75 years that it has been implemented, I would say this is a Constitution that ensures the exploitation of the maximum number of people in the country.” The CPI(M), which often targets the BJP by accusing it of subverting the Constitution, was pushed into a corner following the uproar over Cheriyan’s comments. Two days later, the minister stepped down from the government. But the view Cheriyan expressed was similar to the stance of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI) — the CPI(M) was formed after a split in 1964 — at the time. Immediately after Independence, the party hailed the freedom from British rule but towards the end of the year changed course to adopt an “unrealistic and sectarian, adventurist line” in its Second Party Congress, the party’s national conclave, in February-March 1948. At the party Congress, BT Ranadive became the general secretary by replacing PC Joshi and the BTR line came into existence. In a book on its history published in 2005, the CPI said, “The sum and substance of the decisions, taken at the Party Congress (which came to be known as the BTR line) was that Indian freedom was a sham independence, real freedom had not been achieved, imperialist hold continued in different form, the Nehru government was an agent and junior partner of imperialism and therefore had to be overthrown immediately to establish a worker-peasant rule.” The book said the party began imagining India was not really free and “it took another half a dozen years or so for the CPI to come back to the reality of independence”. In the run-up to the adoption of the Constitution in January 1950, the CPI under BTR argued that “Congress rulers are going to impose their slave Constitution on the people of India” and that the Constitution embodied the rule of the Indian capitalists, landlords and princes “working in collaboration with imperialists” to exploit the toiling masses. This is what Cheriyan echoed through his comments. The BTR line, which called for a violent overthrow of the Nehru government, proved to be a disaster and ran its full course in 1948 and 1949. In May-June 1950, Ranadive was removed as the general secretary of the party, with the Central Committee observing, “The Politburo embarked upon its adventurist line of action with a reckless call for an all India strike on March 9, 1949, imagining an insurrectionary situation round the corner.” Though Ranadive was gone, the party continued with its criticism of the Constitution. It, however, softened the tone a bit. A draft policy statement that the Politburo, under the leadership of new general secretary C Rajeshwara Rao, issued on November 5, 1950, talked about a basic programme to “mobilise anti-imperialist classes into a people’s democratic front”. One of the points in the statement was, “Scrapping the slave constitution and repealing all repressive laws enforced on the people by the present reactionary ruling bloc, and the framing a people’s democratic constitution by a constituent assembly elected on the basis of adult franchise for men and women above 18 years of age, guaranteeing full freedom, democracy and civil liberties to the people irrespective of sex, community and nationality.” The following year, at its all-India conference in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta), the CPI adopted a party programme. The lengthy document mentioned the Constitution several times, saying that though the right to vote had been extended to people “it is a deception of the people to say that elections alone under this constitution can end the landlord-capitalist rule in the country and the imperialist hold over its life”. The party claimed that “the constitution guarantees no rights to the people which are enforceable in any way or which are not subject to violation by the emergency autocratic decrees of the bureaucracy which is irremovable and inviolate”. It also said, “The right to strike, to living wage, to work and rest for the working class and salaried employees is not guaranteed and made enforceable. The land of the landlords and the properties and incomes of the dethroned or enthroned princes are made inviolable. The landless peasant can have land, it appears, but only if he can buy it or compensate the landlord for it. But to buy land and to pay compensation, capital is needed, and tens of millions of poor peasants who live from hand to mouth have no capital. Therefore, the poor peasants have to stay without land and continue their existence in poverty.” The document on to say, “Thus while the stranglehold of landlords, princes and imperialists on our economy, land and capital is guaranteed by this constitution not a single item of the life and liberty of our masses is guaranteed, beyond stating them as pious illusory wishes. The constitution is not and cannot be called a truly democratic constitution but is a constitution of a landlord-capitalist state, tied to foreign imperialist interests — mainly British.” A Statement of Policy adopted at the conference had this to say on the Constitution: “There are a large number of people who think that this government can be replaced by a people’s democratic government by utilising the parliament ushered in by the new constitution. Such feelings are encouraged and fed not only by this government and the vested interests but even by the rightwing socialists, who preach that the very fact of a strong opposition party on the parliamentary floor will shake the government and make it topple down. But hardly had the people started to believe in the efficacy of the new constitution, which they thought was the outcome of their anti-imperialist struggles of the past, than even the fiction of the fundamental rights and guarantees is thrown out of that very constitution and the freedom of person, the press, speech and assembly, which the masses wanted to use to shake up this anti-democratic government, are subjected to the rule of the police baton and the bureaucrat.” But despite all the criticism of Indian democracy, the CPI participated in the first general elections in 1952. In its election manifesto, the party said the Constitution gave people the right to record their vote “but not the right of recall if those whom they vote for turn out to be traitors to the pledge they gave”. It urged the electorate not to be deceived by false promises. “The people want not a change of masters; they want to be masters of their own fate,” it added. Later, analysing its poor show in the elections, the party said the votes it received were not the real indication of its influence and took a dig at the Constitution. “Above all, taking into account the undemocratic nature of the Constitution and with a view to forging unity and defeat the Congress, the Party did not put up its own candidates in many constituencies, but supported the independents, the KMPP and other parties and even the Socialist Party.” At its Third Congress in 1954, the CPI reiterated that the Constitution was a “deception”. The CPI general secretary at the time, Ajay Ghosh, wrote in an article on the Third Congress, “Our Programme clearly states that the Constitution is a deception and through it the working class cannot come to power. So, it is not merely a question of only winning elections. We have to mobilise people for the defence of democratic liberties and democratic forms, for, by attacking these, the Government is trying to hamper the growing mass movement against itself.” The party maintained the “Constitution is a deception” position in 1956 too when the Central Committee adopted amendments to the Party Programme that was to be placed before the Fourth Party Congress in Palghat. Victory in Kerala A shift occurred in 1957 after the CPI created history by winning Assembly elections in the newly formed state of Kerala. It was the first democratically elected Communist government in the world. In an article titled “Salute Kerala” that appeared in party mouthpiece New Age on April 7, 1957, Ghosh said, “We have sought for adherence to the noble sentiments and aims pronounced in the Preamble and Directive Principles of our Constitution, while its false prophets have cynically disregarded them.” He went on to write, “The promise of the new Government in Kerala lies in that it will, while doubtless functioning within the four comers of the Constitution, make a resolute break from the unwholesome and undemocratic ways of the State Governments under the Congress. The Communist-led Ministry will return to the welcome but hitherto forsaken declarations of the Constitution and strive to realise them in flesh and blood, so that whatever the Constitution intends to give for the wellbeing of the people is given here and now. The Communist-led Government will derive its authority from the Constitution, not to serve the privileged and the wealthy few, but to minister to the needs of the down-trodden millions. It will invoke the authority of the law and the Constitution to remake Kerala and bring in its own contribution to the gigantic task of the rejuvenation of this great Republic.” The CPI manifesto for the 1957 general elections too spoke of implementing Constitutional promises if voted to power. It said, among other things, “The Communist Party will fight for social, economic and political measures for the improvement of the condition of the people belonging to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. The Party will demand implementation of the assurance given to them in the Constitution. The period of the assurance should be extended … The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution should be suitably amended to confer regional autonomy on compact tribal areas so that these areas are democratically administered.” The party reiterated that the Directive Principles of State Policy would have to be “speedily implemented and made a part of the fundamental rights of citizens which should be justiciable”. It also called for the repeal of the Preventive Detention Act and said that “Article 21 of the Indian Constitution should be suitably amended so as to prevent the enactment of such laws in future”.
