On Review of Jolly Kaul’s Memoirs

COMMUNICATION

After the publication of my article reviewing Jolly Mohan Kaul’s book In Search of a Better World: Memoirs, I find that the first subheading that I gave in it was inappropriate. Actually it intended to convey “No Difference in Lifestyle-related Objectives between the Soviet and Capitalist States†; the omission of the word ‘lifestyle-related’ was an error for which I take full responsibility.

A reader asked me if my statement (under the subheading “Reasons for Collapse of the Soviet Union†) that the USSR was a society of state capitalism “with all the attributes of a capitalist society plus the vices of state-centric polity†was not a little too sweeping. On second thoughts I do concede that the said statement needed to be qualified. Whereas the capitalist state’s prime objective is profit for capital, the Soviet state had, as its prime objective, “food and living apartment for all, job for all, health and education for all†. That, indeed, was a big difference. But the denial of freedom of thought and expression became nightmarish overshadowing the benefits. Later, when party functionaries became a class apart assuming the characteristics of a privileged set-up, things began to fall apart. The people’s high expectations yielded place to deep mental depression and this was reflected in low productivity. It needs a new term to describe this phenomenon.

Also it must be noted that the price of the book is Rs 550 and not Rs 700 as stated in the review article at the outset.

Sailendra Nath Ghosh

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