In Memoriam

by Bishwajit Sen

Late Nikhil Chakravartty thought of “Plurality†when the concept itself was largely unknown. True, the Twentinth Congress of the CPSU did the essential and seminal job of leaving Indian Communists doubtful of certain “Eternal Truths†, but that was that and nothing else. Stalin was blamed for everything but the fact that the malaise was deeper was neither elaborated nor understood. Here and there in Europe, plurality was practised as a matter of mere necessity (like in France, where the CGT was an united TU exercise of Communists and Social Democrats) but it was never taken up in an all-embracing way. Communism was a one-way traffic and except the Communists, nobody held the tickets for the journey. To establish Mainstream at such at time, which would provide space to Commu-nists, Leftists, Congressmen, Socialists and similar other political formations, was an act of courage. If Nikhil Chakravartty would be remembered at all by posterity, it would be for this act, which was the first of its kind in India.

What he did was of tremendous importance, as the later years would prove. As crisis after crisis of national magnitude unfolded, Mainstream stuck to the task it decided for itself, that is, finding out a common position, with which every right-thinking Indian would be in agreement. During the Emergency of Mrs Gandhi, while the CPI was surreptitiously silent about the Emergency’s negative potentialities, the CPI-M criminally detached itself from acting against it, too much mindful of “protecting its own base†. Mainstream alone put up a brave fight against Mrs Gandhi’s Emergency. Nikhil Chakravartty’s friends supported the Emergency (at least the first half of it) but it did not matter for him. Later on, of course, his friends came round to his position.

But, why speak of the Emergency alone? Innumerable examples can be given of Mainstream fulfilling the role assigned to it by history. The latest example, which can be given, is of globalisation-inspired land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram. It was another difficult battle, where Mainstream, the brain-child of a Communist, stood against “Communists†who had sold their souls to the devil. It was in fact worse than the CPI colluding with Mrs Gandhi’s Congress during the Emergency. The CPI-M can never the absolved of the guilt of what it did in Singur and Nandigram. During this crisis, Sumit Chakravartty and his team saw to it that the CPI-M’s guilt does not go unpunished.

These examples apart, Mainstream has repeatedly pleaded that people be placed at the centre of politics. If globalisation has not completely engulfed us as yet, some credit for it must go to Mainstream, besides other individuals and organisations. It has alerted us, at every step, of the intentions of the Indian ruling class, of its machinations and ruses. Without such a friend, the Indian middle class could very well have lost its way in the quagmire of humdrum statistics, which do not carry any meaning at all for the common masses.

We would very soon be celebrating the birth centenary of Nikhil Chakravartty, the visionary, the ideologue and valued friend of the common man. He would continue to live in our midst, with his gentle nudging to keep us from dozing off. Sometimes he would violently shake us up too, but these would be all for our benefit, something for which even we ourselves hardly care these days.

The author, who is close to the communist movement, is a literary figure based in Patna.