CPI(M) in Crisis

The Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s [CPI(M)] Draft Political Resolution (DPR) for its 20th Congress to be held in April at Kozhikode has been made public after it was adopted by the party’s Central Committee at its meeting in Kolkata last month. This is a first and the party should be commended for its attempt at transparency.

The CPI(M) proposes to work towards the emergence of a “left and democratic alternative” to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Now the Left, in its reckoning, is itself, the Communist Party of India, the All-India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party, but the question as to who are the democratic forces is predictable. In fact, the draft resolution states that “it may be necessary to rally those non-Congress, non-BJP forces which can play a role in the defence of democracy, national sovereignty, secularism, federalism and defence of people’s livelihood and rights”. So the Indian electorate is in for another round of the party desperately trying to stitch together alliances with right-wing, regional, caste-based outfits, all in the name of keeping “communal forces out of power”. The party congress will nevertheless witness the prominent display of banners proclaiming “Workers of the World Unite” and the portraits of Marx, Engels and Lenin, with the implied claim that the CPI(M) is the legitimate heir of the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist tradition in India. Sadly though, the DPR does not even suggest an intention to take the revolutionary road that was hoped for, way back at its 7th Congress in 1964.