Message of the CPI Congress

by BISHWAJIT SEN

The 21st CPI Congress (March 27-31, 2012) came at a time when the ruling UPA-II is losing its credibility fast in the public mind. The host to the party Congress was the Bihar unit of the CPI which, with limited resources, managed things extremely well. The credit for this goes to the Bihar leadership of the CPI and specially its unassuming Secretary, Badri Narayan Lall, a Communist of long standing and firm convictions. Their efforts made the CPI visible in Bihar again. A massive rally, which took place on March 27, heralded the beginning of the Congress. It was heartening to see the masses placing their trust in the CPI afresh.

It is necessary to point this out, because during the last two decades, Bihar has seen a proliferation of red flags, peddled by dubious elements, Maoists, Naxalites or pure self-seekers. Every bourgeois leader loves to have his own “Communist Party”. Laloo had his “Krantikari Communist Party” and one does not know whether Nitish Kumar too has one up his sleeve. The situation being such, it was difficult to keep the ideological borderline defined. Fortunately for us, the CPI passed this crucial test.

Sons and daughters of toilers, donning the uniform of People’s Service Corps, looked after the security of the delegates, management of the canteen run for the occasion and transportation. It was as if the very earth of Bihar had responded with great eagerness to the call of the CPI.

The 21st Congress of the CPI elected Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy as the General Secretary of the party. With this, a new era has begun in the history of the Communist Party of India.

The draft Political Resolution (adopted at the National Council session held at Hyderabad from January 4 to 6, 2012), submitted for discussion at the Congress, etched out the situation obtaining in the country in a precise and concrete manner. With the country gradually slipping into the vice-like grip of neo-liberalism and the people’s rights getting curtailed almost daily, the entire scenario was brought out most vividly in the report. Another aspect of this situation is that the Left is missing the bus at an alarming rate. The CPI leader-ship should be thanked that it did not mince its words while describing this. The CPI-M, the biggest component of the Left Front, is yet to show this courage. Instead of pointing out the mistakes specifically and making a clean breast of them, the CPI-M still fumbles with explanations which could be offered to the people, whereas it should state clearly that the mirage of neoliberalism misled it. Until and unless this is done, the people’s trust in the CPI-M would not get renewed.

The CPI-M is yet to admit that after its stay in power for 34 years, it stands hugely depoliticised. As a corollary to this, alien class tendencies have crept into its ranks. Instead of depending upon the people, it rolled out more and more on power-brokers, the magicians who could bring the party its much needed electoral victory. As a fallout of all these, the Left has on its hands the insane, Tughlakesque regime of Mamata Banerjee. It would be an arduous task for the Left to recover the ground it has lost.

In Kerala, the Achuthanandan-Vijayan rift spilled over into the streets and, as a consequence, the LDF lost power by a razor-thin margin. The problem was in existence from before, but the central leadership of the CPI-M went on offering one incredulous solution after another which set the whole public opinion laughing. It was only the CPI-M leadership which did not realise as to what absurdities it was resorting to.

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THE situation is highly critical, because both the UPA-II and NDA stand thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the people. Almost all the regional parties have their own versions of Tughlaks in leadership. (An example may be cited of Mayawati, who “elephantised” the whole of Uttar Pradesh in the name of Dalit empowerment.) The regional parties keep on being mutual friends and foes from one minute to another.
Only the CPI seems to be aware of the gravity of this situation, as was evident from the deliberations of the Congress. This was recognised by its Left Front partners (Prakash Karat included). Debabrata Biswas of the Forward Bloc went as far as to say that the leadership of the Left Front on the all India plane should go to A.B. Bardhan of the CPI in future. Whether it would materialise or not is a different matter, but the proposal speaks volumes about the respect in which the CPI is held by its Front partners.

The Congress deliberations were held in S.K. Memorial Hall, which was named “Comrade Sunil Mukherjee Sabhagar” in memory of the founder of the Bihar CPI, Sunil Mukherjee, who came to the CPI from the ranks of “national revolutionaries” and founded the CPI in Bihar in the year 1939, in Monghyr. His parental house at Monghyr stands donated to the party. The Congress venue was named after Jagannath Sarkar, the ex-State Secretary of the party.

A unique feature of the Congress was the holding of three open seminars on three different subjects, such as (1) problems of agriculture; (2) socialism of the 21st century; and (3) the inter-national situation. Representatives of Cuba, Syria and Venezuela attended the Congress as fraternal delegates. Messages of greetings were received from the Communist Party of Bangladesh, Workers’ Party of Bangladesh, Communist Party of the Russian Federation, and several other fraternal parties.

The Congress concluded on a note of optimism. In a difficult situation, the CPI was able to show its mettle by adopting a clear-cut ideological stand and not compromising on principles. A long road lies ahead for the Left which can hardly be negotiated by cunningness and guile. Only honesty would help in the course of this journey. The CPI Congress has amply provided this message.