It’s time Marxism reinvented itself

The Communist Party of India (Marxist), the country’s largest party following the Marxist- Leninist path, has much to ponder over and much to explain if it wants to stay relevant. Its central committee met in Hyderabad recently and dwelt at length on issues facing the party and the nation. For much of the last century, it was assumed, speculated, feared that Marxism-Leninism that brought the communists to power first in Moscow and then in Beijing, would eventually travel to India via West Bengal and Kerala. That did not happen.

It was also assumed that with massive poverty and inequality, the Left would be the rallying force for India’s poor and work to alleviate their sufferings. But that, too, has not happened. Somewhere, the Left lost touch with the masses and left them to be grabbed by other, inimical, political forces.

The CPI (M) meets a little over fifty years after its birth in 1964, splitting from the CPI. It is also a little over 24 years since disintegration of the Soviet Union that had been the lodestar of the Left movements across the world (how they squabbled over Moscow’s role and performance!). The Left has lost out even as the world, erroneously perceived as unipolar with the United States as the global lodestar, is increasingly becoming multi-polar.

Like in much of the world, India has adopted the free market path. Although dictatorships of the military and fascist varieties have spared India, while engulfing some of its neighbourhood, Dictatorship of the Proletariat is not even a distant dream.

Ironically, this has happened even as India, notionally at least, is a socialist republic. The party’s pro-poor image has taken a beating. Marxist leaders are often at odds with one another, and its relevance is frequently called into question as India’s economic reforms that they perceive as antipoor and anti-worker, are pushed forward by successive governments.

Agreed, the Left has had as tough task preaching rational thought and act (though not always practising) and being seen as godless in a country of god-fearing people.

Yet, its failure lies in being unable to chart an alternate path. Howsoever traditional, the Indian society is a pluralist one. The Left failed where various hues of socialists, free-market promoters and communalists succeeded. The result is the lurch towards the political right under the current dispensation at the central level and in most of the states.

The Left had umpteen opportunities to influence the course, even have Jyoti Basu to become the prime minister, but they were wasted because of dogmatic approach. For decades, the Left tried to be an alternative to the Congress and the BJP. It has failed where a newbie like Aam Aadmi party has succeeded.

The Left failed to keep even its long-held bastions. Its failure is evident in the way West Bengal and Kerala have seen, within a short period, resurgence of communal forces. Politically, too, in West Bengal, the fight is between the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, both rightwing. In Kerala, too, sill the main opposition, the Left is seen as bunch of squabbling leaders. Only little Tripura survives, for how long?

By: Mahendra Ved