What line will CPI(M) take to counter BJP? : The Tribune India

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What line will CPI(M) take to counter BJP?

An intense debate is raging within the Communist Party of India (Marxist), with the comrades divided unequally over the political line to be adopted at the triennial party congress to be held in Hyderabad next April that will remain relevant for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

What line will CPI(M) take to counter BJP?

DIFFERING VIEWS: CPI(M) leaders Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat. Reuters



KV Prasad

An intense debate is raging within the Communist Party of India (Marxist), with the comrades divided unequally over the political line to be adopted at the triennial party congress to be held in Hyderabad next April that will remain relevant for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The contours of that debate could crystallise into a well-defined draft party document at this weekend meeting of the Central Committee. This could result in a line that favours pursuing a pragmatic policy of larger unity of non-Left secular forces, or agreeing to retain the dogmatic coming together of Left and democratic forces to face the humungous challenge mounted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). With the RSS acting as the guiding force, the BJP is daring the Left parties in their traditional bastion states of Kerala and West Bengal, with Tripura added for an amplifier effect.

The general secretary of the CPI (M), Sitaram Yechury, is advocating that it is time for all secular parties to pool political resources and collectively oppose the BJP that the CPI (M) Party Congress in 2015 identified as being the main political opponent. The political resolution at the Visakhapatnam party congress noted it has to fight against the BJP and Modi government's policies. "This is the main task at hand. This requires a concerted opposition to the Modi government's economic policies and its Hindutva-oriented social, educational and cultural policies. The party has to conduct a political-ideological struggle against the BJP-RSS combine."

The political line was clear that while the main direction of the struggle is against the BJP, it will continue to oppose the Congress since it pursued "neo-liberal policies" and the UPA government's anti-people policies and massive corruption helped the BJP acquire popular support: "The party will have no understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress." Yet, by the time elections to the West Bengal Assembly came last year, a not-so-subtle change occurred, what with the CPI (M) and the Congress arriving at some understanding, much to the chagrin of the Trinamool Congress and party comrades from the South.

The euphoria ended when the results did not go as anticipated, allowing party members from Kerala to strike a more strident posture against Yechury's and Bengal comrades' experiment.

Since then, the "nothing to do with the Congress" — also known as the Kerala Line — remains predominant. It has votaries from the south enjoying the backing of former party general secretary Prakash Karat, whose points of view carried the day in 1996 to deny Jyoti Basu the opportunity to be PM and again in 2008 when the Left parties withdrew outside support to the Manmohan Singh government over the Indo-US nuclear deal. 

As against this, the "let us do business with non-Left secular parties" — a euphemism for the Congress — and referred to as the Bengal Line is being pushed by general secretary Yechury.

In the last Politburo meeting,  members from Kerala and South with sizeable presence voted against the alternate draft which articulates Yechury's interpretation that as a classical Marxist, the party will have to arrive at "concrete analysis based on concrete conditions" and the imperativeness of getting rid of the Modi government. This translates into a strong and independent capacity; forging of unity of Left and democratic parties; and more importantly, cooperation and understanding with non-Left secular parties and draw tactics accordingly.

The analysis is that the BJP must be opposed at all levels since it is not any other ''bourgeois party'', but one doing serious damage to the constitutional order and parliamentary democracy; and also advancing policies that favour the economic reforms for profit maximisation; corporatising land and causing distress in the agriculture sector.

 As against this, the Kerala line argues there is no way the party can think of arriving at any understanding in their citadel while comrades in Bengal are looking to a bolster from the Congress that does not command major political space there. The argument is the CPI (M) has hardly a presence in most parts of the country to make any meaningful difference in terms of accrual of votes. The alternate plan put forward by this group is that CPI(M) and Left could canvass for the non-Left secular parties wherever it has little or no base of its own.

In January 2004, when in the process of stitching a coalition to take on the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government, Congress president Sonia Gandhi reached out to veteran Marxist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet for an understanding with the Left, he suggested that both parties focus on maximising seats in Parliament and work out an arrangement later. That eventually led to the CPI(M)-led Left extending outside support to the first United Progressive Alliance government. After the formation when asked to explain the contradiction of taking support from the Left parties which are staunch political opponents both in Bengal and Kerala, the then Union Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi explained: “East Bengal and Mohan Bagan (football clubs) compete against each other in the state, but their players come together to turn out for India.”

As the estranged Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav notes at his recently launched Sanjhi Virasaat rallies, the combined opposition garnered 69 per cent of the votes in the 2014 General Election as against the BJP's 31 per cent. While battling his own woes within, Sharad Yadav's quest is to achieve what political pundits refer to at all times  - Index of Opposition Unity. 

Considering that the Politburo outvoted Yechury formulation 10-6, the tussle for retaining ideological purity versus adapting realistic tactics could eventually be pushed for the  party congress to decide whether another ''historic blunder'' is in the works or a new course could be charted.

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