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Mainstream, Vol XLVII No 10, February 21, 2009

Principled Political Unifier of the CPI

Monday 23 February 2009, by S G Sardesai

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It is now more than twentyfive years since Ajoy left us. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no one has been able to fill the void created by his absence. It is difficult to say whether he could have succeeded in preventing the party split in 1964. But I have no doubt that he would have very greatly minimised the harm caused by the split.

A proper biography of Ajoy Ghosh needs to be written. Here I can only highlight what I consider his key contribution to the party and the Indian communist movement. And that was his role as a principled political unifier of the party.

Our party was in an extremely difficult condition in the autumn of 1950. The adventurist line adopted by the Second Congress of the party early in 1948 had collapsed. It was followed by what was then called the Telangana line which also cut no ice with the great majority of party members. The party found itself in a blind alley with comrades in different States going in different directions, a situation made worse by the fact that we were working underground in that period.

It was about August-September 1950 that Ajoy wrote what subsequently became famous as the three Ps document (since it was also signed by Dange and Ghate with all the three assuming tech names beginning with P).

I cannot go into the tortuous path that the party had to traverse between autumn 1950 and the autumn of 1951 when all of us came overground.

But there is no doubt that the Programme and Policy Statement adopted by our Third Party Congress at Madurai early in 1953 were very close to the three Ps document. No other party leader produced a line anywhere near the line adopted by the Madurai Congress.

Again, at the Palghat Party Congress in 1956, it was Ajoy who stood between two contending party lines and secured the support of the entire Congress, and that without resorting to any eclecticism or opportunist concession to anybody.

The third and most agonising test came at the Vijaywada Party Congress in 1961. The entire proceedings of the Congress were a nightmare. Both politically and organisationally the party stood on the brink of a split. Ajoy delivered a speech around which the Congress was united.

I am not suggesting that the Central Committee, and after 1959, the National Council were divided into two sharp segments with Ajoy alone wielding a magician’s wand that united all. The majority of the National Council and Ajoy were always in the same boat. But the contending pulls were also powerful. That was what made the task of unification very difficult.

I must add that Ajoy was a very serious and disciplined internationalist. His international and national lines were cogently interlaced. He sincerely stood by the document of Eightyone Communist and Workers’ Parties adopted in 1960. With all the halo of the Chinese Communist Party in those days he did not accept their carping criticism of the 1960 document (which later came out in the fullfledged form of an alternative international line which was rejected by the overwhelming majority of Communist Parties in the world). He made every effort, and a very patient and persuasive effort, to make the leaders of the CPC to see reason. But he unambiguously opposed their aggressive policy towards India during that period. Comrade Ajoy always entertained very high regard for the CPSU.

Sometimes very unpleasant and unhappy events are very revealing. What Ajoy meant for us and the entire Party was experienced very soon after his tragic end.

The National Council could not elect a General Secretary without a serious division which was clearly very undesirable. So it created the post of a Chairman in addition to that of the General Secretary. We did it though there was no provision for a Chairman in the party Constitution. Only then, both the Chairman and the General Secretary were unanimously elected. What we did was correct under the circumstances but that also revealed the deep wound the party suffered due to Ajoy having left us.

And that was a clear proof that no single comrade could fill the void created by his absence.

I can go on like this, giving many more illustrations of Ajoy’s magnifying role in the party. But this is not the place for greater elaboration.

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I hope I will be excused if I end on a personal note. I first met Ajoy at the Karachi Congress in 1931. He had just been acquitted in the Lahore Conspiracy Trial in which he had passed through all the ordeals that the accused together with their leader, Bhagat Singh, had to go through.

And yet his entire demeanour and behaviour struck me as surprisingly simple and unassuming. We felt instinctively drawn towards each other.

Then in 1932, I passed six months with him in the Kanpur Jail where both of us were locked up, of all reasons, for having “no ostensible means of livelihood”! That was the British justice of those days.

In Kanpur Jail, our relations became closer, and we had plenty of time to discuss politics which very soon brought him into the party. He was, no doubt, already moving in that direction. Our discussions, perhaps, hastened the process.

All my memories about him from that time till his death well up in my mind as I am writing these lines. Life is not all politics. There are human relations which are priceless. And there are memories, which do not fade with time.

How I wish Ajoy were with us today when the unification of the Indian communist movement has once again become an urgent need of history! Maybe, he would have found the healing touch.

But, even without him, we can revive and emulate his spirit, his deep love and concern for keeping all Communists together by convincing them that what united them is far deeper and more valuable than what divides them.

I understand his eightieth birth anniversary is at hand. There can be no greater tribute to his memory than every Communist in India taking a vow that he will strive his utmost to bring all Communists and communist trends in the country in a common stream.

[Excerpts from the Introduction to Marxism and Indian Reality: Selected Speeches and Writings of Ajoy Ghosh, Patriot Publications, New Delhi, 1989]

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