The Journey With A Revolutionary Mission

Jyoti Basu

THE celebration of the 40th anniversary of the People’s Democracy is not just remembering the foundation of a paper. It is an event of great political significance especially at this juncture. This communist weekly is indeed one of the vibrant institutions of the communist and Left movement in India.

Like in other parts of the world, in India too, the emergence of the class-conscious journalistic practices dates back to the very initial phase of the communist movement. In the 1930s, the Bombay-based first central organ of the undivided CPI, the National Front, had a deep impact, in particular, on the working class politics during the days of our fight against the colonial regime. Thereafter, the People’s War and its successor People’s Age, both weeklies, had wider political influence in shaping the course of national politics during and after the Second World War. In 1950s, the undivided CPI organised English-language central organs like the Crossroad and the New Age. The impact of such communist journals, backed by some of the best brains and dedicated party-men, was felt even beyond, what could be called, the communist party circle. The democratic movement in general found in them a credible and consistent source of strength and support.

However, the People’s Democracy, which was brought out at an ideological and organisational cross road of the Indian communist movement, has definitely a special place in the history of Communist journalism. It happened at a time when we were facing the challenge of concretising the strategic and tactical guidelines for applying the fundamental principles of Marxism – Leninism to the concrete conditions in India.

DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES         

The People’s Democracy started its journey in the backdrop of the spilt in the communist movement of India. The CPI(M) was formed in the process of a prolonged struggle against revisionism within the united CPI. The last Congress of the undivided CPI was held in 1961 in Vijaywada. It was the sixth party congress. When all attempts to avoid any division were defeated, we had to decide on the reorganisation of the party on the basis of Marxist-Leninist principles. The seventh congress of the party, held at Calcutta in December 1964,marked the culmination of our struggle against revisionism within the undivided party. It marked a break --- organisational as well as programmatic – with the revisionist elements. We adopted a new party programme in Calcutta to achieve Peoples Democracy as a step towards the goal of a socialist society. It was in sharp contrast with the class collaborative line of National Democratic Revolution, the Right CPI dished out. The struggle we conducted was in extremely difficult circumstances. In the wake of Indo-Chinese border conflict in 1962, the leftists in the undivided communist party had to face unprecedented repression. Senior leaders were arrested and kept in detention without trial for a long period. This was accompanied by a concerted propaganda blitz by the pro-government big media. But what made the situation more difficult was due to the nexus between the government and the revisionists within the party. The rightists captured the Swadhinata, the then daily organ of the provincial party in West Bengal by taking advantage of the situation, when leading comrades within the undivided CPI who opposed the revisionist line, were put behind bars. This was not experienced perhaps by any other communist party in the world. The ruling classes thought that repression and all-round vilification campaign would be able to stifle our voices and the revisionists/ class collaborators in the communist party would be able to rally a majority. But their hopes were belied ultimately.

NEW EXPERIENCE    

However, it was not a cakewalk in any sense immediately after the split. With no sign of any halt the governmental repression, it was extremely difficult to consolidate the party organisation in various states. Except in states like West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura and to some extent in Andhra Pradesh, the rightists captured the party offices and organs in most of the states. The central organs of the CPI also joined the bandwagon – those were charged with ceaseless tirade against us.

Under these circumstances we tried to take urgent measures for consolidating the party organisation of mobilising all our forces whatever was feasible at the time. After the seventh congress, the party central committee office was shifted to Calcutta, considering the strength of our party in the state. It was at Lake Place in South Calcutta, where Comrade P Sundarrayya and some of our PB members decided to stay for running day to day work. I can still remember the role and contribution of our comrades who helped tirelessly to manage matters in the hurriedly arranged central committee office then. It was a new experience for those comrades in West Bengal.

Soon we took a decision in the Polit Bureau to launch a central organ of the Party from Calcutta. At that time even the West Bengal party had no daily organ of its own, except in Bengali the weekly Deshahitaishee. On June 27, 1965 the central committee brought out the new weekly organ, the People’s Democracy with the help and cooperation of the party in the state. The responsibility of the editorship of this new party organ was entrusted to me. It comes tomy mine dthat in 1951 when daily Swadhinata was revamped by the party after the withdrawal of the ban, I had to assume the responsibility as the chairman of the editorial board. Later on Comrade Bhupesh Gupta took the charge.

For obvious reason and for my other organisation responsibilities it was not possible for me to look after the day to day work of the PD. Comrade Sundarrya, Comrade Basavapunnaiah, Comrade EMS, Comrade BTR were regular contributors. Comrade Ramdass, I can remember, had to take the main burden of editing and production of the paper. some of the leading comrades from the teachers’ front also came forward to volunteer and thus helped ensure its regular publication, despite many odds.

COLLECTIVE ORGANISER

Understandably, the primary objective behind the decision to publish the PD was to explain to the people the policies and stand of he party, its tactical lines on emerging issues. We also planned through the PD to rally the whole party all over India through regular exchange of ideas and experiences. We struck to the Leninist principles that there is no other way of training strong political organisation except through a strong central party organ, which can play the role of the collective organiser in party building

While writing this article I have got from our Ganashakti comrades a copy of my signed front page editorial article titled “Our Mission,” which, I find, was published in the inaugural issue of the PD. It reminds me of those days. Let me quote a few sentences from the last paragraph of this article so relevant to this write-up: “We do have an important mission to fulfill and we are publishing our journal at a time when not only the Communist Party has been attacked by the government but democracy, rule of law, parliamentary institutions, free and fair elections have all been assailed…Our weekly will mirror the trials, tribulations and struggles of the masses of our peoples. It with reflect their true interests in the economic, political social and cultural spheres. It will help to raise the consciousness of our people and to expose the anti-people, undemocratic measures of the Congress government…Our paper will be not only an instrument for propagating our views but also for unifying and organising our Party throughout India. It shall be our bounden duty to listen to the views and criticism of our readers in order to improve our paper and carry out the tasks which we have undertaken to discharge.”

Fascimile copy of PD first issue front page

I would also like to share with the readers of this article the explanation we presented in the same article about the name of the paper --- why we chose the name People’s Democracy? The answer was straightforward – “We have chosen the name PEOPLE’S DEMOCRACY for three reasons: (i) we have set for ourselves the immediate task of achieving a People’s Democratic state by replacing the present state which represents the interests of a handful of vested sections of society. (ii) An ignorant or designing home minister has described this objective as ‘Peking’s prescriptions’ and poured venom on it. (iii) The concept and basic ideas of People’s Democracy have been rejected by the Dange group of revisionists.”

The publication of the PD also encouraged and helped the party in various states to organise their own state-level organs in regional language. I know from my experiences that the party organs in various states used to reproduce the article from the PD by translating those in their own language. Such practices multiplied its reach.

WIDE REACH       

So far I can remember now, I remained PD editor for nearly two years when in April 1967 Comrade BTR took the charge. In 1970, Comrade Basavapunnaiah succeeded Comrade BTR. Comrade EMS became editor in 1974. After a few years, Comrade MB again was entrusted with the responsibility, which he continued till his death in April 1992. Then Comrade Sunil Maitra edited the PF for a few years.

It gives me immense pleasure to see that our small effort in those tumultuous days has been proved to be fruitful and the PD is now recognised as an effective party paper. Though there is no room for complacency, and there is scope for lot of improvements, especially the task of circulation enhancement; it’s an achievement that the PD is now a multi-edition weekly, being published simultaneously from Calcutta and Hyderabad apart from its New Delhi edition. The party also launched an Internet edition of the paper, thus making it available to the global audience. We are utilising the new, state-of-the art technology to further its reach to the best of our capacities.

These initiatives are all the more important in the present context when the party and the left forces are pursuing a vital role in the national politics.

OPPOSITION TO COMMUNALISM  

The last Lok Sabha elections brought about a major change in the political lives in the country. We have succeeded in defeating the BJP alliance in the Lok Sabha elections in cooperation with other democratic and secular forces. It was time for the BJP with its misrule and communal politics to go. The rightward shift in Indian politics that began at the turn of the 1990s was marked by the disturbing legitimacy accorded to the politics of communal fundamentalism. The BJP-RSS combine who did not reckon with the secular and democratic consciousness of the vast mass of our people, met with a setback.

We were able to put in place a secular government at the centre by extending support to the United Progressive Alliance government headed by Dr Manmohan Singh. We were also able to win recognition from the people for our political line and get the highest number of seats in the Lok Sabha ever.

While these are achievements, we cannot be complacent; a lot more remains to be done. The BJP and its mentor, the RSS, still command substantial influence in the country. For six years, they were able to use the government to penetrate the state apparatus. The BJP has vacated office but its pernicious legacy remains.

We want the congress to introspect with due seriousness. Can it continue with the same economic politics of indiscriminate liberalisation and privatisation? Will there then be any difference between its policies and those of the BJP? The people expect the UPA government to fulfill the commitment that its policies will be for the common people. This requires first of all a realisation that liberalisation has only benefited 10 per cent of our people. We must chalk out a path of development which is founded on concern for the vast masses who have not received the benefits of growth. We must rely primarily on our domestic resources for investment. Foreign direct investment should come in based on our national priorities and on the principle of “mutual interest.” The public sectors in the strategic and key sectors need to be strengthened. Our Party is not yet in a position to implement alternative policies all over the country. That requires a qualitative increase in the strength of the party, its Left and democratic allies.

It would be shortsighted to lose sight of the fact that five decades of bourgeois landlord rule, has led to the erosion of not only secular values but injected a degree of unprincipled opportunism in many of the non-Left political parties. The fight against the reactionary forces, the upholders of a sectarian political ideology which targets the minorities for political aggrandizement, must be carried out without any let-up. Even when some of the secular parties opportunistically combined with the BJP, the CPI(M) did not waver. Our Party can legitimately claim to have contributed to this struggle with all the resources at our command.

The UPA government has been in office now for twelve months. Our party’s stand on the Congress party is well known. We have basic differences because of our respective class characters.

Nonetheless, we recognise the Congress as a secular party. As the biggest political party in the country, its role has relevance in determining the secular character of the state at this juncture. It is this concern which led us to extend support to the Congress-led UPA government. But it has to realise and fulfill the people’s mandate. While we extend support to the UPA government to meet the exigencies of the current situation, there will be no giving up on our basic agenda. We shall always defend the interest of he people especially those who are deprived most. We make our assessments independently and decide the course of action.  

EMERGING CHALLENGES

The CPI(M) continues to press for the implementation of the pro-people measures in the common Minimum Programme while opposing any attempt to pursue the wrong policies rejected by the people. The Party has to mobilise all sections of the working people to launch bigger and sustained movements for defense of their interests.

The situation is no doubt complicated and it’s not an easy task to make people understand the intricacies of the developments. We need to engage all our resources and strength, the party and mass organisations, to mobilise public opinion in favour of our political line. We have to build our party organisation throughout the country and need to reach all segments of the people if we want to intervene in the political lives of this vast country. We will not be able to make any breakthrough in real sense without expanding the independent role of the party and our political-organisational influence.

It is understandable that the new situation demands further strengthening of the People’s Democracy to meet the emerging challenges before the party. It’s not enough for our party organ just to explain to the people the prevailing situation; we have to influence the people, to motivate and activate them. Especially, at a time when the bourgeois media, generally speaking, are armed with all their weapons against the communists and the left. Thanks to technological revolution, the media itself now is amazingly diverse in this age of convergence. The TV boom as we are used to now-a-days was beyond our wild imagination at the time the PD started its journey. The electronic media is a very powerful medium now which influences popular perceptions and tastes. The expansions of private satellite TV channels is the most significant feature of the recent period. The private – owned Indian and foreign channels have become the most explicit conveyance of the liberalisation ethos and its cultural values. The rightwing economic policies find their most aggressive advocates in the big business dominated print and electronic media.

The onslaught of consumerism and mind-less commercialisation which are intrinsic to the present scheme of globalisation scheme is also a threat to the democratic polity. The pro-people values are sought to be marginalised and co-opted with the market-driven consumerist values.                                      

It’s not merely a coincidence that the 40th anniversary of the PD is being celebrated at a time when the ground realities in national and international sphere call for a greater role of the CPI(M). The Political Resolution of the 18th congress speaks. “The Party and the Left are placed in a favourable situation in the country today. Due to the consistent struggle against communalism and the pro-imperialist and pro-rich economic policies, defense of national sovereignty against imperialism, more and more sections of the people are recognising the Left as the defender of he people and the country’s interests. Such a situation has to be utlised to take the Party’s politics and ideology to wider sections of the people who have not come within the ambit of the influence of the Left forces. This is the time to launch a widespread campaign to take the message of the party and the Left to the entire country.”

Let us resolve to strengthen the People’s Democracy to rise to the occasion and contribute to fulfill this mighty task.