Jai Siaram ! (Will the Red Rise ?) )

Jai   SiaRam !

(WILL    THE    ‘RED’    RISE ?)

     Sitaram Yechury  has been elected as the General Secretary of the Communist party of India (Marxist ) on the 19^th April in Visakhapatnam. The general perception among the sympathisers of the Left is that he is a balanced person, a moderate who has ability to break ice with the  various political parties who matter in present times. There was certainly decline in the impact and presence in parliament of the left in the last ten years. In 2004 it had 58 seats together with CPI, Forward bloc and RSP ,perhaps the highest in its history, whereas in the  present it is just 10  with one CPI, MP . Mr Karat seemed too aloof and stiff and never a person of masses. The fact that he was not singularly blamed for the decline indicates that he could carry the members with him and perhaps they were collectively responsible for the depletion of its MP strength. We are aware of the manner in which P C Joshi and Dange were removed from the party for seemingly   toeing a wrong line ( support to Congress). Indeed it is ironic that CPM followed the path of P C Joshi ,whom the combined Communist party removed as  the first Secretary.

   From the beginning of my student days when among the many youth I too was inclined  toward left politics in Allahabad I silently observed that the Left lacked support in the hindi heartland as it did not have any leader of stature there. Leaders like Jharkhande Rai and Sarju Pande were restricted to their constituencies of Gazipur and Banda.  We lamented that since the top newspapers are owned by the Industrialists there was  no support for the Left in the mainstream media .The front line leaders could communicate in English and  regional language but failed to make any impact in Hindi and in fact hardly gave any speech in Hindi. I heard Mr Namboodripad and also Mr Bhupesh Gupte, they were respected because of their stature but they did not impress me or fellow students with their speech. The impact of the left was in pockets which has eroded since. They also never whole heartedly nurtured /trained  youth in North India and UP particularly as leaders and speakers. Perhaps those who mattered were satisfied in their corners and comforts as they were regularly elected to Rajya sabha. Some did  make good impact in the parliament  with their oratory and interventions such as Indrajit Gupt, Hiren Mukherjee and Bhupesh Gupte who has a record of being the longest serving Rajya sabha member but the good work in parliament never translated to expansion and growth.

In my opinion the following are the reasons of the decline of left :

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a)  Lack Of Unity. The two main left parties ;CPI (M) and CPI should have come together when they both were strong. CPI in Kerala and CPI (M) in Bengal , but perhaps CPI (M) was waiting to see CPI completely depleted and in turn got reduced itself! Ironically the CPI (M) followed the same policy which CPI did by aligning with Congress. If the two  parties come together along with their Unions it may make a fighting force but it is unlikely to happen as it is not in their agenda.

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b)   Mass Movement.   The party could not launch any mass movement in order to expand its reach. Their space has been taken by parties such as AAM Aadmi party and  other non political groups such as Narmada Bachao Aandolan, the anti corruption movement of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. The Marxist seemed caged in their traditional mould. They should have grabbed issues relating to environment, Land Acquisition, corruption, health, safety of Women, Education, suicide of farmers.

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c)   Mass Leader. The Communist  parties do not believe in individuals , for them ideology and party are superior. Ideally that is correct but practically it does not happen like that , along with the party you need to project leaders who are identified by the masses, leaders who have the ability to communicate. The CPM won successive elections in West Bengal on the charisma and the communicative skills of  Jyoti Basu. The party did revise its policy by sending to Rajya Sabha  Sitaram Yechuri and Brinda Karat  which helped the party but the contact with the people is primary.

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d)   Ideology. Though it is understood that one must move with times, but at the same time the core issues should not be compromised. People identify the Left with certain core values which stem out of the Marxist thought. Parliamentary Democracy does make the Marxist dilute its goals which are related to revolution and class struggle, but the Marxists should not have supported the policy of reservation on caste lines ,they should have proposed and propounded  reservation on economic condition basis. On taking over as the General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri stated that he would be seeking reservation in private sector . As long as the reservation on caste lines remains the caste will remains which will keep the nation divided and the petty politics alive.Another issue on which the position of CPM is not progressive is its support to personal Law and its opposition to Uniform civil code

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e)   Lack Of ‘E’ approach.  Though Mr Yechuri talked of reaching out to the youth and expanding its reach , the party seemed unaware of the impact of Internet , social sites etc, which BJP and AAP used to the fullest with good results.

    On the elevation of Mr sitaram Yechuri as the General Secretary of the party many interesting comments and columns have been printed. Uddhav Thakre has called Yechruri’s  new position as “Captain of a sinking ship”. Mr Javed Naqvi in an article published in Deccan chronicle has titled it ‘ Do we need the

Communists?’ stating that the space left by the communists has been taken over by other resistance movements.  Dipankar Gupta in an article in TOI titled ‘Sitaram Yechuri Reloaded’ states in his opening lines “ To be more Marxist, or more communist? That is the question for Sitaram Yechuri” . He writes further something quite interesting “ Communists have always revelled in being persecuted loners, unloved maybe but always pure. Yechuri’s stance on all this is refreshingly different ;even Congress is no anathema  if the cause is right”.

   Well! How much of the ‘purity’ Sitaram is ready to shed in order to expand his base is to be seen in coming days.

A STINGING SLAP OF THE 'REAL' AAM AADMI

                     A   STINGING SLAP OF THE   ‘REAL’   AAM  AADMI

Gajendra Singh the farmer from Dausa , Rajasthan  who committed suicide in New Delhi on 22April during the rally of the Aam Aadmi party has shocked the  Nation and revealed  the complacency of the urban centric political parties. He; in his sacrifice has given a stinging slap to all the politicians and bureaucrats who are actually collectively thick  skinned. People were  known to commit suicide in metropolitan areas owing to loneliness, depression failure in business/love etc but the problem has shifted to rural areas since the launch of the liberalization in early nineties. Lakhs of farmers have committed suicide , the primary reason being unable to pay the debt due failure of crop / cash crop. And nobody seem to learn from the tragedy as the main political parties were busy through the day to milk political mileage from it.

    Gandhiji had written and advocated of the ‘Village Republic’ wherein each village would be a self sufficient entity but our new Sarkar propagates of 100 smart cities! Where will they make the cities? On the graves of the farmers ! By thrusting the Land acquisition bill with all the means under command!

The farmers are the most vulnerable community, they need protection  as they cannot mobilize themselves  the way the industry workers do, owing to the inherent economic and environmental insecurities they are unable to sustain their movement for long. Rural life is difficult and those of us who have sympathy with their cause are unable to spend time amidst them as our romantic notions  fade  when the brutal rural reality hits us . Journalists fleet around the place during election campaigns, very few committed journalists sustain their concern P Sainath is one name  whose seminal work in the book ‘Every body loves a good draught’ is much revered.

 Gajendra Singh threw a suicide note prior to his taking his own life; the last  words were “ Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” . He saluted the two communities serving selflessly the Nation and being  ignored ! He travelled to the seat of power to make himself hear!!

It is reported that he was recipient of many awards for tying  Pagri in various styles . His handsome face and colourful Pagri will haunt us for long; hope it results in some change of heart and mind  -for the good of the farmers!

DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY

                        DETECTIVE BYOMKESH BAKSHY

  I was looking forward to this film and so booked my tickets in advance and went alone for the 0230PM show at Jagdamba Vizag today. It could be that I had high expectations from the film or whatever but it did not excite me and all along together with the quiet audience I was looking and searching for something to take home but returned subdued. I had to pep up myself with a hot cup of coffee and onion Uttapam at Sai Ram tiffin .

   The film is set in the early forties of Kolkata when the world war 2 is in full swing the Japanese have captured Burma and are making plans to capture India and Kolkata. Against this backdrop there is a Chinese gang operating in Kolkata dealing in opium smuggling. Arrives  a young man to meet Byomkesh Bakshy the renowned detective to request him to find out the whereabouts of his father who has been missing since last two months after initial hesitation and altercations he accepts the case and the complex plot unfolds and as the movie progresses it  becomes  complicated and murkier and murkier. Many characters are introduced ; from seductive siren to shaky roommate to Japanese Doctor to student leaders and politicians but no novelty emerges.  There  are murders and betrayals and a  plot to capture power with the help of the opium  dealers .The end is the usual Bollywood style with the villain showing his true colours and characters and scenarios influenced by Torantino. Loud western music unrelated to the theme and period keeps blaring in the background; the sweetness of Bengali music as seen in so many detective movies and short films  of Ray seem untapped. In trying to do something new Dipankar Bannerjee fails to kindle excitement among the audience as he did so well in his initial three films- Khosla ka Ghosla, LSD and  Oye Lucky.

  

    I also felt that the director perhaps was too busy creating the period of early forties of Kolkata that he failed to ignite the story or present the story in an interesting way. I have this impression that an Indian audience is not prepared for many twists and turns, a single but solid twist is enough to steer the story . Dipankar was too enamoured of  presenting the ‘Period’ and may have thought that to be the USP of the film but he was mistaken ; the backdrop is just a ‘prop’ the life and blood is the story and screenplay. Notwithstanding my disappointment with the film what goes to the credit of the director is creating good characters , making them perform in a subtle and effective manner. Sushant Rajput the main protagonist has worked on his gait and speech and little style and is likeable similarly is his client Bannerjee played by young Tewari; he has imbibed suitable mannerism less speech toward his performance. There are two main female characters contrast to each other and have emerged fairly fine, the seductive ‘Angoori’ does create interest among the audience. Kabir the soft spoken Dr Guha is the surprise packge and has come a long way from his ‘Ship of Theisus’ days in which he played a jain monk brilliantly, he will benefit the most from this film and commercial Bollywood roles would open out for him.

   After his last film ‘Shanghai’ failed to impress the audience it was expected that this time Bannerjee would perhaps not indulge in unnecessary complexities of plot and make a simple detective story lucid, but in order to be different yet again he seems to me to have missed the mark. I am labouring here to convey my disappointment with someone whom I like and who arrived with some small but sweet cinema and won many admirations and so the expectations were high. He is not run of the mill director , I therefore would say that ‘Detective Byomkesh Bakshy’ was an experiment with cinema which missed the mark. Maybe the film may surprise me by becoming a hit on the strength of the principal character who has a good following since his TV days, but it will remain a small consolation for Bannerjee and me for we were looking for a yet another ‘small wonder’.