People's Democracy

Resolution on Ideological Issues Released

THAT CPI(M) has been struggling to achieve socialism through the “Indian path,” was what the party’s Polit Bureau member, Sitaram Yechury, stressed while replying to a pressperson’s query during a press conference at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi on February 6. Yechury recalled how the CPI(M) has been, from the very beginning, guided by its own independent understanding of the Indian situation while learning from the experiences of the international communist movement and socialist countries.

The press conference was organised for release of the Draft Resolution on Some Ideological Issues, which would be presented for consideration before the coming 20th congress of the party. CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat as well as Polit Bureau members Brinda Karat and S Ramachandran Pillai were also present on the occasion.

Replying to the questions regarding China, Yechury pointed out how the draft resolution has taken note of the extraordinary economic progress of China without losing sight of the inequalities and other serious problems that are exacerbating in this process. The document also underlines its conclusion that China’s future would depend upon how and with what degree of success it resolves the emerging contradictions.

Yechury also rejected the contention that the CPI(M) wishes to imitate the Latin American path, reminding that despite their successful and vital resistance to imperialist globalisation and finance capital’s hegemony, progressive regimes of Latin America have so far put up an alternative within the framework of capitalism and are still far from socialism. In his brief intervention amid the plethora of questions regarding the socialist character of the People’s Republic of China, Prakash Karat said the CPI(M) has no hesitation about regarding China as a socialist country.

Regarding the draft resolution itself, Yechury pointed out that the 18th and the 19th congresses of the party had also felt the need of such a document and that it was after a gap of two decades that the CPI(M) Central Committee had given a final shape to such a draft. It was thus natural that the document has taken note of the changes that have occurred in the international capitalist system in this period, in particular of the imperialist globalisation and increased offensive of finance capital. These changes pose certain challenges at the international and national levels, which the document took note of in order to decide the future course of action.

Yechury also underlined that in the concrete Indian circumstances the document paid special attention to caste, communalism, gender inequality and regional and ethnic identities, which are extremely important for unity of the toiling masses of our country. Drawing attention to caste oppression in particular, he said that the struggle for socialism in India would be won only through sustained fight against class exploitation as well as social oppression. On this occasion, he also underscored the necessity of combining the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary forms of struggle.