Keeping on talking
There is a bright side to all these deliberations that leave the Left standing still. Can the BJP, or Congress, claim to discuss politics so civilly? There is a bright side to all these deliberations that leave the Left standing still. Can the BJP, or Congress, claim to discuss politics so civilly?
Last weekend, the CPM politburo met in Delhi and debated what ought to be its stand vis-a-vis the Congress when the general election is held in 2019. It was no exercise in abstraction, but a threadbare analysis of two documents, one prepared by former general secretary Prakash Karat, the other by incumbent chief, Sitaram Yechury. With no resolution possible, the 16 comrades, who constitute the party’s brains trust, graciously shook hands and agreed to continue the debate in a larger forum, the party’s central committee (CC). If the CC, which has 91 members and 10 invitees, fails to build a consensus, the party congress, slated for April next year, will have the final say.
There is a bright side to all these deliberations that leave the Left standing still. Can the BJP, or Congress, claim to discuss politics so civilly? How many hours, days and meetings do they devote to analysing the (class) character of potential allies before exploring the possibility of an alliance? And so what if there is a crucial election unfolding in Gujarat. Or, a Bengali Muslim labourer has been lynched in a videographed hate crime in Rajasthan. If the party is the CPM, tactics and strategy cannot wait. They deserve intense deliberation, even if it does not serve any practical purpose, and in fact, skirts the ground completely.
The less-theoretically inclined may sneer that the CPM tally in the Lok Sabha has been in free fall — it fell from a high of 44 MPs in 2004 to nine in 2014. But there are no easy paths to revolution and theory must hold precedence over praxis. Yet, having said that, there is still something surreal about the communist semantics over the Congress in this moment of politics. The obsession dates back to the pre-Independence era and split the party in 1964, but the comrades still can’t decide what kind of beast the Congress is. In the meantime, the people have been moving on.
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