ON TO EIGHTEENTH CPI(M) CONGRESS

 Current Situation Devolves Heavy Tasks On Us

Harkishan Singh Surjeet

SCHEDULED to meet in Delhi in the first fortnight of coming April, the eighteenth congress of the CPI(M), the highest decision making body of the party, is going to take place at a very crucial juncture in world history. And this fact adds to the importance of the party congress that would deliberate on various issues arising out of the obtaining international and national situations and take appropriate decisions so as to meet the challenges of today.

In accordance with the mode of functioning of our party, whatever decisions our eighteenth party congress arrives at, would guide the tactics to be followed by the CPI(M) at various turns of events in the next three odd years, before the next party congress meets.

US BELLIGERENCE AND RESISTANCE

VERY crucial is the international situation today, with the US intensifying its drive to foist its hegemony on third world countries and what are called the transitional economies. Though this drive has always been there since the second world war ended, it particularly intensified after the demise of the Soviet Union that till then used to act as a countervailing force to imperialist tactics. The loss of the Soviet Union left the third world countries particularly vulnerable, besides fostering a process of pauperisation in the erstwhile Soviet republics and formerly socialist countries of East Europe.

The imperialist camp is trying to take full advantage of this situation to dictate terms to the developing countries. The last 12 years have seen a full-fledged drive to impose conditionalities on the developing world through the Bretton Woods institutions and, to an extent, through the World Trade Organisation that came into existence in the post-Soviet phase as a result of the Uruguay round of negotiations. At the same time, the US has become excessively aggressive and waged three wars (against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq) in four years (1999-2003), besides having bombed Afghanistan and Sudan earlier on flimsy grounds.

Moreover, in the beginning of this century, US president George Bush propounded a queer theory of “the axis of evil” in an attempt to browbeat such countries into submission as are (or were) not ready to bow to the American diktat. And now, with Bush’s re-election to the White House, the American threat to several sovereign countries has multiplied manifold. US warmongers have already pulverised Iraq and are not ready to leave it before securely positioning a puppet regime in Baghdad. At the same time, they have renewed their threats to DPR Korea on the nuclear issue. Of late, they have started to threaten Iran on the same issue. For this purpose, they tried their best to exploit the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that is a body under the UN. Their aim was to force the IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to make a report that Iran was engaged in a clandestine nuclear weapons programme, so as to have a justification (!) for attacking Iran. But when the IAEA chief said his agency could not find any evidence of such a programme, the Americans got furious with him and are now spying upon him. They have already scrutinised “transcripts of dozens of his telephonic talks with Iranian diplomats, in search of ammunition to prevent him from getting a third term in the post” (The Statesman, December 13). And this is despite the fact that, as per a Washington Post report quoting three unnamed US officials who had read the transcripts, the “intercepted calls have not produced any evidence of nefarious conduct by ElBaradei.” According to the same paper, “Anonymous accusations against ElBaradei made by US officials in recent weeks are part of an orchestrated campaign.”  

The pattern to be seen here has nothing new. For long the US has been seeking to hijack the UN, sometimes successfully, and it was through this world body that it got brutal sanctions imposed against Iraq after its first Gulf war in 1991. Then, it made the UN constitute a team for inspection of Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) but, when the team reported that it could not find any WMDs in the country, the US simply ignored the report and went on to attack Iraq in March 2003. One thing is sure: the day this team’s leader Hans Blix, a Swedish diplomat, brings out the book he is writing, the world would witness a big uproar against the US war machine.

And now the US is trying to hijack the IAEA for its nefarious designs against Iran. The US is incensed that Mohamed ElBaradei, an Egyptian diplomat, was part of Hans Blix’s team to Iraq and openly questioned the US intelligence on Iraq.

After having expanded NATO, the Americans recently tried to destabilise Ukraine. They are also trying to foist upon the Palestinians an agreement that may be against the Palestinian interests and to Israel’s liking.

The question of UN’s reform assumes significance in this very context. It is true that the reforms currently under discussion are not very radical or far-reaching. Many are of the view that the veto power should be dispensed with altogether, the Security Council must act only as an executive body of the General Assembly, and all its major decisions regarding war and peace must be ratified by the General Assembly. Yet, the proposed reforms could be taken as an interim stage in the struggle for the UN system’s reform.

But all is not black in the international arena. As the US hegemonic drive intensifies, so does resistance to it in various parts of the globe. Latin America these days is looking like a bastion of anti-imperialist struggle and the US has suffered serious reverses in this region, despite its attempts at intervention. After Venezuela, Brazil and Bolivia, Uruguay has joined the list of the countries where pro-US forces have suffered serious reverses.

At the same time, anti-imperialist struggle is mounting in other parts also, in one form or another. Mighty demonstrations have taken place against the US war against Iraq in most of the capitals around the globe. The annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank have also faced angry protests in the last few years. Held in Mumbai, after a series of regional forums in Latin America, Europe and Asia, the World Social Forum has further highlighted the depth of anti-imperialist resentment and anger that is agitating the people of the world.

It is true that most of these struggles are still uncoordinated and lack a clear-cut direction. But the signs are clear: these protest actions have to sooner or later coalesce so as to take the shape of a powerful anti-imperialist movement. The events are themselves forcing these actions in that direction, and the sooner this happens the better for the nations of the world. In our country, the CPI(M) and other Left parties are trying their level best to accelerate the pace of this process.

NATIONAL SITUATION

COMING to the national situation, it is radically different from that obtaining at the time of our seventeenth congress in Hyderabad in March 2002. At that time, the BJP, at the head of a coalition, was ruling the country. A gory massacre of Muslims was then going on in the BJP ruled Gujarat, with the full backing of the state government. Moreover, from Vajpayee and Advani to Fernandes, those ruling at the centre were singing paeans to Narendra Modi who was presiding over this genocide.

Now, however, our people have thrown out that coalition, which the fascistic RSS was utilising in various ways to push its communal and fratricidal agenda through. The BJP and allies have suffered reverses in Lok Sabha polls in May this year, so much so that never after 1977 had had so many ministers bitten the dust. The TDP, which was supporting the NDA regime from outside, suffered an ignominious rout in Andhra Pradesh in both Lok Sabha and assembly polls, and then the BJP-Shiv Sena combine suffered again in Maharashtra assembly polls.

As we know, the Lok Sabha polls brought to power another coalition called the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the Congress party. But the important thing is that these polls increased the Left representation in the lower house; in fact the Left now has its biggest ever representation in Lok Sabha since India ushered into a republic. So much so that the UPA regime is today crucially dependent upon the Left support.

This situation, however, devolves a heavy responsibility upon the Left parties. There are basically two aspects to the situation with which we have to deal. On the one hand, the UPA government has taken some steps that are in violation of the promises it had made in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP). The recent hike in the prices of petro-products was also not in the spirit of the CMP. It was only under pressure of the Left parties that the government withdrew the threat of hiking the LPG price by Rs 5 every month till the whole (so-called) subsidy on it was eliminated. If the government had had its way, the LPG price could go up to Rs 492 per cylinder, which Mani Shankar Ayyar recently told the parliament should be its “ideal” price. In Delhi, this would have been Rs 210 more than the current cylinder price; thus the announcement of withdrawal of the hike was no small victory for the Left.

On the other hand, despite its explicit promise in the CMP, the government began to dither on the issue of employment guarantee scheme and, after pressure from the Left parties and certain members of National Advisory Committee, it is now seeking to introduce a much diluted act in parliament. It is also apprehended that the UPA government is going to make retrograde changes in the patent act of 1970, which will seriously impact the domestic pharma and seeds industries and the life of the common mass of this country. There is also a rumour that, in view of the opposition in parliament, the government may take the ordinance route to effect such changes and meet the WTO’s December 31 deadline for the purpose.

Despite its explicit promise in the CMP, the government has not given up its intention of privatising certain profit making public sector undertakings. The government also tried to have IMF-World Bank nominees on its planning bodies and thus facilitate the penetration of these institutions into our economy. It was only after an uproar that these so-called “advisors” were told to leave; it is another thing that, stung by this uproar, the rulers dissolved all the committees attached with the Planning Commission.    

These and some other acts on part of the government strengthen the apprehension that there is a lobby in the Congress party and government that is out to sabotage the CMP, while seeking to rush every possible benefit to the indigenous and foreign capital. Given the class character of the UPA’s constituents, however, this is not surprising. Nor should one harbour any illusion about the intentions of these parties.

Yet, on the other hand, if the Left parties are supporting the UPA regime from outside, the aim is to prevent the BJP from staging a comeback. One thing must be borne in mind. As the sixteenth CPI(M) congress (Kolkata, October 1998) had pointed out, the BJP is not just one among the bourgeois landlord parties. Rather it is a thoroughly communal party, behind which stands the fascistic, conspiratorial RSS which strives to foist a theocratic state upon the country and kill our pluralistic ethos and composite culture. The point, thus, is not that one combination of parties has been replaced by another. The point to keep in mind is that the first and foremost task today is to protect the country from the communal onslaught. If our national unity is lost, then our nation is lost and then everything is lost. Who will fight for what policies if the people of this country get divided and begin to kill one another in the name of religion?

The Left is thus compelled to tread a very thorny path. On the one hand, it cannot remain a mute spectator if our rulers follow anti-people policies. At the same time, it cannot take any such step as may facilitate the return of the BJP which, though at present thoroughly demoralised and internally rocked by dissension, is trying to regroup on a strident communal platform.

The problem is compounded by two crucial factors. One, on the question of economic policies, most of the parties in the country are prone to towing the World Bank-IMF line to one extent or another and thus the Left has to ensure, virtually single-handedly, that the common people’s life standard is not eroded. Secondly, though the people of this country are overwhelmingly secular, the parties whom we call secular are not together but divided into many camps. Not to talk of the parties that professed to be secular but lined behind the BJP, even the non-NDA secular parties have not been able to put up a united fight against the communal combine. This has its own perils, and the Left has to do its best to bring these parties together on the issue of secularism and national unity even if this task is extremely daunting. 

ON TO FURTHER SUCCESSES

SUCH are the international and national situations which the coming party congress of the CPI(M) is to take into account in order to meet the consequent challenges. As we said, the situation is extremely daunting and demands a lot of patient work from us.

Yet, as a communist party, we have certain advantages that are denied to bourgeois landlord parties by their very nature. One of such advantages is that we have a base of committed and disciplined cadres whose commitment and discipline are not imposed from above. Rather, their commitment is born out of their own perceptions and their discipline is the product of their own convictions. The result is that our dedicated cadres do not think in terms of narrow personal gains but see their enlightened interest tied up with the interest of the masses, their emancipation in the emancipation of the masses. It is this conviction of our cadres that makes them strive for a fundamental change of our society, for India’s regeneration.

And it is these cadres that are currently going through a process of intense discussions even in remote corners of our country where we have a branch. During the run-up to the party congress, the process of local, zonal/area and district conferences is by and large complete by now, while the process of state conferences is on. The free and frank discussions in these conferences and the elections of committees and secretaries at respective levels have once again testified to that fact that, no matter how much the bourgeois media abuse us in what terms, we as a communist party are a thoroughly democratic party. And this very tradition will soon culminate in our eighteenth congress.

Yes, we communists don’t have democracy of a particular kind, that is every day seen in bourgeois landlord parties. The members and more so the leaders of these parties revel in intense factionalism and mutual mudslinging of the worst kind, and all this is motivated by meanest self-interests. So much so that these self-interests make the concerned persons hop from one party to another. The BJP, of course, succeeded in misguiding the people with the propaganda that it was a party of principles. But as a spate of recent events demonstrated, this “party with a difference” was a party of differences. And what about its so much touted discipline? Poor Advani is losing his sleep, thinking how to save the BJP from what he called Congressisation!

To be sure, communists have absolutely no regard for such kind of democracy or discipline. On the contrary, our discipline is a product of our valuable organisational concept of democratic centralism. Our cadres exercise fullest possible democracy in a comradely manner, they engage in criticism and self-criticism without any malice, they thoroughly discuss the issues and problems facing them before they reach a conclusion or decision. But once a decision is arrived at, it becomes the decision of the whole unit concerned and all are duty-bound to implement it in earnest. Thus a communist party seeks to have a healthy combination of democracy and centralism, in which an individual member submits to the collective, the minority submits to the majority decision, the lower committee submits to the higher committee, and whole party submits to the Central Committee that is elected by a party congress and is the party’s highest decision making body between two congresses.

This conception of democratic centralism also gives a member the right to demand a particular decision’s review, but after that decision has been given enough time to be tested in practice. For, as Marx, Engels and Lenin taught us, practice is the only measure of the correctness or otherwise of a position. Secondly, we always keep Lenin’s warning in mind that the dividing line between democratic and bureaucratic centralism is hair-thin, and we seek to ensure that democratic centralism does not become bureaucratic centralism.

It is in such a spirit that the whole party from top to bottom will be discussing the draft political resolution which the Central Committee is duty-bound to release two months prior to the opening of a party congress. As such, this time this draft will be released towards the end of January or beginning of February, all the units will discuss it threadbare, and members will, individually or collectively, send their amendments by a set date. Then the Central Committee will take note of each and every amendment, and present a report thereon to the party congress. Then this document and the amendments will be discussed at the congress where elected delegates will propose further amendments before the document is put to vote and adopted after incorporating appropriate amendments. 

This is the democratic process we communists will be once again following till the coming party congress adopts a line for the next three odd years. And we are confident that till we remain embedded to our concept of democratic centralism, our links with the masses would remain intact, rather get further strengthened, and we would be scaling new heights in the days to come.