India: CPM Should Learn from Late PC Joshi and Not from Mulayam Singh Yadav

INSAF Bulletin 140 December 2013
International South Asia Forum (32 Cowan Ave, St. John’s, NL, Canada A1E 3N7 (Tel.709-368-3252; e- mail; bulletin@insafbulletin.net


CPM SHOULD LEARN FROM LATE PC JOSHI AND NOT FROM MULAYAM SINGH YADAV

by Daya Varma and Vinod Mubayi

The Communist Party of India (CPM) is the life-line of the communist movement in India. There are other communist parties too, like CPI, but there is no apparent political and ideological reason for their existence; they reflect the decay and not the rejuvenation of the communist movement. The only radically different trend and, indeed, the greatest vulgarization of Marxism is represented by the Maoist movement, which is neither Maoist nor a movement but seems to get undue attention on the part of the media because of its violent nature.

The task of rescuing the communist movement and making it a decisive political force in India lies with CPM. For this and only this reason we argue that CPM is on a suicidal path and must desist from it.
Why do we say so?

Communist party of India and Rashtria Swayamsewak Singh (RSS) were founded at about the same time in the mid 1920s; CPI by the best talents and dedicated revolutionaries that India had at that time and RSS by a zealot Hindu doctor who could not think beyond his high caste Hindu upbringing. Some eighty five years later RSS through its many fronts, including its political arm Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has become the second most influential political party and might even form the new government. CPM is, however, trailing behind Mulayam Singh Yadav in its quest to build an anti-Congress and anti-BJP Third Front.

Since the end of the glorious Telangana struggle, and the first Indian elections when the CPI emerged as the second largest party in Parliament behind Congress, the communist movement has steadily declined. The era of the dynamic leader PC Joshi ended and the reckless era of Ranadive began. The expulsion of PC Joshi from the Party set the trend of split after split. Joshi could as well have formed a different communist party and many would have joined him but he refused to do this.

Nineteen sixty four was an year of historic significance with the split of CPI into CPI and CPM compounded by the next split in 1969 engineered by the juvenile exuberance of Charu Mazumdar. The responsibility of rejuvenating the communist movement has now fallen on the shoulders of CPM. Since Prakash Karat is the General Secretary of CPM, it is his responsibility to give a serious thought on how to lead the communist movement to its rightful place as the savior of India from a fundamentalist and potentially fascist Hindu Rashtra.

It is ironic that when in the 1990s the name of late Jyoti Basu came up to become the Prime Minister of India, a communist Prime Minister of such an important country as India, Prakash Karat opposed it because CPM was in the minority and would not be able to implement a socialist program. Now he is all for a secular anti-Congress, anti-BJP front in alliance with secularists or communalists turned secularists. What CPM can possibly accomplish by becoming a tail of Mulayam Singh is not hard to recognize.

The only genuinely secular party in India is the communist party. True, there are a few others who do not wish to suppress or kill Muslims but they are not secular in the true sense. How can a caste-based party be secular? Moreover, Mulayam Singh is the father of goonda politics in India. For him, Charan Singh was a socialist. He is anti-China and anti-Pakistan. How can any one have an anti-Pakistan view and safeguard the interest of Muslims? Pakistan might have become a different country hostile to India but the Pakistanis are also “desis” first and foremost, sons and daughters of the same soil as Indians. It is impossible to assure the safety of Muslims in India coupled with hostility against Pakistan.

Besides this Third Front for which CPM is doing the leg work has already been taken over by Mulayam Singh in his quest not to decide who will form the next government but to fulfil his historic ambition to become the Prime Minister of India.

Furthermore and most importantly the anti-Congress and anti-BJP front is in essence an anti-Congress and, objectively, a pro-BJP front. Whether one likes it or not, Congress is the only party at present that can prevent India from going into the hands of criminal Modi. Almost any member of the CPM- engineered Third Front with the exception of CPM and CPI can by bought by BJP. Even Mulayam Singh can join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of BJP if he is offered some important post that will stoke his ambitions.