of his party's decision to join the electoral mainstream and adhere to constitutional norms (an overemphasis on which seems to have blunted its earlier revolutionary edge as an opponent of the Establishment), one must acknowledge that among its leaders, Nagbhushan was one of the first to identify the new danger that was beginning to threaten the entire Left movement from the late 1980s onwards, In the face of the deadly challenge posed by the Hindu communal forces, Nagbhushan not only intensified his efforts to bring together the scattered revolutionary groups, but also extended his call for unity to all the parliamentary Leftist parties to fight the saffron brigade. It is significant that his last public speech, a few weeks before his death, was delivered at the opening session of the CPI's 17th Party Congress at Chennai. Here he drew the attention of the delegates to the futility of experimenting with United Fronts with disparate parties subscribing to opportunist agen- KERALA Literary Style of Politics K Haridas das, and warned them against joining the Congress chariot as an alternative. He then stressed the need to unite the Left's own forces against the "saffron brigade in power", and reiterated the proposal of his party, the CPI(M-L), to form a broad- based Left confederation rooted in a common programme of struggle. Describing the importance of political co-operation among all sections of the Left as the "primary agenda" today, he appealed to them to march together with "mutual respect" and strike with all their combined strength against the common enemy.
