"India cannot be represented by a few political parties. The projection that India can be ruled only by the Congress or the BJP is aimed at undermining the Left and other regional parties," Mr. Raja told The Hindu in an interview.
He said the CPI's 21st national congress in Patna between March 27 and 31 in 2012 intended to do a critical study of the political situation and provide an alternative arrangement, taking into consideration the deep crisis in which the Congress-led UPA had been caught. "In fact, by default, the UPA government is continuing in office. The so called principal opposition BJP is in disarray and trying to come back to power by default. In such a situation, an alternative in terms of socioeconomic policies can be provided only by the Left."
Mr. Raja said the country's economy was in a pathetic state, with the industrial and manufacturing sector going into decline, agriculture wallowing in chaos and the service sector seeing retrenchment of workers.
"Though it is part of the global economic crisis, India could withstand the crisis in the beginning because of its strong public sector. But the UPA government is refusing to draw any lessons and continues to pursue the Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode which, in reality, is privatisation," he said.
There was no mid-term review of the economy and there was no mid-course correction. "The UPA has failed to curb inflation and rising prices. Frequent hikes in the prices of petroleum products have had a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities. In this context, the Planning Commission's definition of below poverty line BPL is ridiculous. Does [the Plan panel vice-chairman] Montek Singh Ahluwalia think that a person in Delhi can run his life by earning Rs. 32 a day? The Planning Commission is cut off from the realities of the country."
The CPI had given a call for a nation-wide hunger strike on October 21 to highlight issues such as corruption and spiralling prices of essential commodities.
Mr. Raja also demanded that the Lokpal Bill be passed in the winter session of Parliament.
B. Kolappan (The Hindu, 26th September )
D. Raja’s call for “a definite place for the non-BJP and non-Congress political grouping in the nation's politics” sounds a very hackney idea that has made rounds since 1976. There was a need for non congress, non BJP political formation ever since India became independent. The communist party of India was founded to do that, i.e. to build a Secular, democratic and socialist society. I remember that at the early years soon after the formation of the first government of our country the left forces, the communists and the socialists were much stronger. But by 1978 the national Party called CPI was reduced to something like 2 seats in the parliament. The CPM, which split from the CPI became a bigger force as they were engaged in building mass base. The CPI became an appendage of the Congress party right through the emergency era of Indira Gandhi.
After the collapse of Morarji Desai the non congress, non BJP sarkars came into being. But their tenure never lasted the full term of the parliament. Of course the most uncharismatic Deve Gowda has a fancy tag to his CV, “former prime minister”.
During the last parliament election a Third Front came into existence. But it had to bite the dust. Now D. Raja comes up with this idea, “There is a definite place for the non-BJP and non-Congress political grouping in the nation's politics . . .” This is not saying anything creative. All of us know that these “non BJP non Congress” political groupings will face the same fate as it did in the last Parliament election. Of course it could improve the chances of BJP or Congress to come to power by splitting the votes.
If one analyses the national political spectrum it will not be difficult to understand this. Jayalalitha has come to national political prominence through the massive victory in Tamilnadu. But Chandrababu Naidu is still lost in the political wilderness. Biju Janatha Dal might be counted on but he faces two terms’ incumbency. JDU is saddled with BJP and cannot afford to leave it for the sake of their glorious second inning in Bihar. Where is the role for the left? The Left Front has no foot hold in their traditional bastion of West Bengal. The great historical and massive victory of Mamata Banergee and her peculiar hatred towards the Left front and CPM in particular she will work hard to gain most of the Parliamentary seats and gain maximum bargaining strength in the Parliament. She is in a much more advantageous position than the Left Front. They have lost power in Kerala. The ruling UDF will leave nothing to chances to win maximum seats from Kerala to the Parliament. The left may further slide down from their present poor position in the elections to be held in 2014.
There is no "sinister design" by vested interests to create an impression that politics in the country is polarised between the Congress and the BJP", as D Raja claims. Mr. Raja told The Hindu in an interview "India cannot be represented by a few political parties. The projection that India can be ruled only by the Congress or the BJP is aimed at undermining the Left and other regional parties". It is the misdoing of the Left that either BJP or Congress led alliances will rule the country. In 1950ies and 1960ies BJP was nearly no existing. CPI and the Socialists were much stronger at that time. But today if you see the situation BJP has become very strong and the Communists have disappeared from the scene of political power. The socialist got buried.
Instead of indulging into finding faults with others the Communists should do some introspection. The facts are very clear. When the Left front, and CPM in particular, enjoyed uninterrupted power in West Bengal they should have used that opportunity to build their mass base in Tamilnadu, Andhra, Karnataka, Maharastra and other parts of the country. I mentioned these states as they did have some presence in these states. They should have concentrated on building an unshakable base in Kerala to put an end to ‘see-sew situation’. But what the CPM has done is to destroy their own mass base in West Bengal. Their cadres functioned in no better way than the RSS cadres who go about injecting communal poison in the society.
The Communists theoreticians should have come out with pristine analysis of economic and political situation both nationally and internationally and put it on public domain. If there is no midterm review of the economy done by the government, the Communists should do that. They have a backing of enduring Marxist methodology to do this. The cursory remarks like "The UPA has failed to curb inflation and rising prices. Frequent hikes in the prices of petroleum products have had a cascading effect on the prices of essential commodities. In this context, the Planning Commission's definition of below poverty line BPL is ridiculous. Does [the Plan panel vice-chairman] Montek Singh Ahluwalia think that a person in Delhi can run his life by earning Rs. 32 a day? The Planning Commission is cut off from the realities of the country." do not mean anything.
Instead of talking about the regional parties and remained allied with them the Communist should speak about building their own mass base in as many states as possible. The regional parties have some time distorted the national perspective of the policy direction of the country. Going by the role the Communists have played in the recent past, their criticism and campaign, one gets an impression that the CPI and CPM are extension of the Bharatiya Janatha Party. They have not distinguished themselves from other political parties through their unique creative analysis and conclusions. Every time the BJP levels an attack on the government the CPM and CPI feel compelled to repeat the chorus set by BJP. Here again they are contributing to the building popularity of the BJP instead of indicating their own independent stand.
Instead of allying with the regional parties they should join hands with social movements across the country. They should ally with the rural masses, the daliths, adivasies, fisher people, women and the most excluded people in the society. The Communist need to concentrate on the civil society to campaign for their most valued perspective for the future India. They should learn from Anna Hazare. With all our differences with his movement one fact that stands out is the way Anna was able to get support for his movement from across all the cities of the country.
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