CPI(M) & the Presidential election

With the Presidential elections set to occupy central space in the coming days and the most likely victory of Pranab Mukherjee (the well known Congress party leader), as expected there was the usual political bickering orchestrated by the oppositions and rivals alike. All in all, Congress seems to have managed to gain a few brownie points over the opposition for now, even while its support base nationally continues to ebb. But one of the aspects which cannot be ignored this time was the decision of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPI(M) to vote in favour of the Congress candidate – Pranab Mukherjee, that really defied all sense of imagination.

Given CPI(M)’s staple rhetoric of accusing the Congress of pursuing a neo-liberal agenda, what was really amusing was its support to Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for President. Pranab Mukherjee, who was the Union Finance Minister until a few weeks ago (and host of other portfolios like Defence, Foreign, etc., previously), continued to follow the same neo-liberal agenda of his predecessors and was party to all the anti-people policies/ decisions of the Congress governments (going back to the Indira Gandhi days). The only explanations that CPI(M) managed to come up with was that it was trying to counter its rival Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress Candidate P A Sangama (a former Nationalist Congress leader from Meghalaya).

This sort of explanations only reiterates the sort of degeneration within the CPI(M) that has no bearing with class politics. At the least it could have done was to abstain like its left front partners the CPI and the RSP or even put up its own candidate to challenge the ruling party or the opposition candidate. The whole idea of backing Pranab Mukerjee has everything to do with its Bengal centric politics and create a sort of a pro-Bengali image among the masses there!

Cracks within the CPI(M)

But what the CPI(M) pundits did not expect was the cracks that this has generated within its own rank and file. First came the resignation/ expulsion of Prasenjit Bose (Convenor of CPI-M’s research unit). And just when they thought to have managed to contain the problem, came the even more damaging news of the dissolution of one of the CPI(M)’s SFI unit (Student Federation of India) at JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and arguably its most influential stronghold, academically as well as politically, in India.

Even worse was the explanation given by the SFI Delhi unit that orchestrated the dissolution (obviously under direct orders from the CPI-M bosses) and the expulsion of JNU-SFI’s four main committee members including Delhi SFI state secretary. It says, the principle reason for the decision was “indulging in anti-party activities” and other, that the local units must engage themselves only in their sphere of work. This is like saying all political analysis and decisions will only be made by the party leadership/ intellectuals without consulting its rank and file. And the local units have only to follow and not question any of the party policies or decisions. On top of all this was to evoke the sacred dictum of following Democratic Centralism!

If there was anyone who actually violated the principle of democratic centralism, it was the CPI(M) leadership all along. It shows what sort of democracy exists within the party ranks of the CPI(M) and its units. That the dissenters were not even given a chance of a fair hearing is enough to prove the point.

While the trigger for the expulsions was to do with the party’s supporting Pranab Mukerjee’s candidature, it was really the flip-flop of the CPI(M) leadership (especially over the last decade) that has really upset many in the rank and file. This included a host of disagreements such as the support for the Congress UPA-1 government (between 2004-08), Singur and Nandigram fiasco, following the Chinese model of capitalism, the miserable performance of the party in the 2009 General Elections as well as the end of the 34 year uninterrupted rule in West Bengal (2010), T P Chandrasekharan murder by CPI(M) goons in Kerala and now the decision to back Pranab Mukherjee.

It would really be foolhardy on the part of the CPI(M) leadership to imagine that the problem can be nipped in the bud by such summary expulsions. The problem lies much deeper, in its ideological roots in Stalinism, which is the core problem.

What happens Next?

While this undemocratic expulsions may not lead to any big inner party revolt for now, these are merely symptoms of the things to come in the coming period. In the Kerala unit of the CPI(M), the stand-off between the VS Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan faction continues. If the CPI(M) leadership continues to shamelessly kowtow with the Indian ruling classes and continue on its reformist path, it is a recipe for a disaster, both for the party as well as the Indian working class. This will set stage for a massive split especially between the trade union and the student section on the one hand and the reformist party leadership on the other.

But the even more difficult question to answer will be what emerges from the split. Because of the decades long Stalinist indoctrination of its rank and file, the issues raised by either the JNU SFI unit or Prasenjit Bose does not, understandably, go deep enough beyond party policies. It does not question the dominant party ideology that is riddled in the flawed stages theory of revolution, People’s democratic revolution and Socialism in One country, parliamentarianism, aligning with the so called progressive wings of the Indian bourgeoisie etc. Even staunch party ideologues like Prabhat Patnaik, who have begun to make some noises against the dominant party ideology, have not really come out with a proper critique.

Unless the party rank and file in the CPI(M), including the ranks of the other major left parties like CPI and RSP, re-look at these fundamental flaws, the same mistakes committed by its predecessors in the parent party will continue to be followed in the same uncritical fashion. The split off/ expelled dissenters will just end up as another sect in the long list of CPI-ML’s.

However, this is not an inevitable scenario as in the past. Given the fault-lines in the global economy and its backlash on India, the need for an genuine socialist alternative to capitalism will inevitably begin to emerge in the coming period. The call to build a new mass party of the working people will at some stage find resonance among the party rank and file of the CPI(M), CPI, RSP etc., especially their student and TU sections, that are increasing starting to question their party leadership.