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.