Conscience of a Progressive Polity

Nikhil Chakravartty launched the weekly Mainstream when the country did not have serious political journals apart from publications of political parties, like the AICC Economic Review, the New Age, the Janata and the Mankind. When the weekly started, it was accompanied by the Link, the Patriot, and the India Press Agency. These publications appeared to promote a political line of asking the Communists to lead the ‘radical Congress masses’, for which they sought to persuade them to join the Congress party in bulk. Sure enough, Mohan Kumaramangalam and Raghunath Reddy, along with some pro-Communists like R.K. Khadilkar ad H. R. Gokhale, joined the Congress party. But, that was also the time when some leading Socialists—Asoka Mehta, Ishwarlal Desai, Chandra Shekhar, Ramdhan and Gurupada-swamy—ditched the PSP and became Congress-men. The weakening of the Congress party as a consequence of the humiliation of the country in the Sino-Indian conflict, the growing debility of Jawaharlal Nehru and his ultimate demise in May 1964, the departure of V.K. Krishna Menon and K.D. Malaviya from the Cabinet, the ouster of some other Cabinet Ministers and Congress leaders under the Kamraj Plan, and the holding of the ‘Little AICC’ at Ranchi had created strong disquiet and confusion in the political circles, particularly outside the Jan Sangh and the Swatantra Party, which had emerged stronger in the third general election. Therefore, it appeared that the joining of the Communists and the Socialists in the Congress party was a calculated design to help fight the reactionary elements within and without of the party and government. Whether it was so or not is a different matter.

There was a felt need, at that time of political uncertainty, that some consistent line be projected for the progressive intelligentsia to seriously ponder over. While the Link and the Patriot appeared only phoney, the Mainstream provided the necessary fare. The only difference was the presence of Nikhil Chakravartty as its editor. Nikhil had his prejudices and was favouring the CPI, but that was understandable, as the latter was pursuing the line with which the Mainstream had started. Indira Gandhi was emerging as the new leader of the Congress party and the heir of the Nehru tradition, though her government’s decision of the currency’s devaluation in 1966 was not appreciated by Nikhil Chakravartty. The growing closeness of the country with the Western bloc (as signified in the AIR-VOA deal, the PL-480 agreement and devaluation) too were criticised by the Mainstream.

While the horizontal split in the Congress party, the presidential contest between V.V. Giri and Sanjiva Reddy, the progressive policies adumbrated by Indira Gandhi as the Prime Minister of a minority government appeared to polarise the polity, the Mainstream joined the chorus in applauding her, in supporting Giri and in joining hands with the ‘New Congress’. But, after the fifth general election, which the Congress faction led by Indira Gandhi had won in an overwhelming manner on the slogan of poverty eradication, a gradual disenchantment started as she failed to implement the policies that she had advocated during the ‘New Congress’ phase. Nikhil Chakravartty was alive to the new mood of the common people and continued to caution the government to rededicate itself to those policies. Rising prices and growing corruption had emerged as thoroughly unpopular among the people. Their response was that of resistance and the government came up with measures of repression. The slogan of a committed judiciary was pursued by supper-session of three judges of the Supreme Court while the aspiration of a committed bureaucracy was being followed by internal administrative changes. As the Opposition parties regrouped under the leadership of JP, Indira Gandhi took harder positions and ultimately imposed the Internal Emergency. V.C. Shukla replaced I.K. Gujral as the new I & B Minister and started to wield the rod to tame the media. Nikhil Chakravartty was among the very few who stood up against pre-censorship and the gagging of the press. He closed the weekly when it became impossible to go along in a free manner. That was his finest hour. He also despaired of the CPI which was supporting the Emergency.

THEREAFTER, as governments came and went, Nikhil continued to examine their policies on merit and help guide independent progressive opinion. He was always advising the CPI-M and the CPI to forge unity, but the CPI-M was never in favour of such unification. He also expressed his wish that with the changes in the policy of the Communists, the old differences between them and Socialists must end. He was always stressing the need to buildiing a strong progressive, secular and democratic India as against the growing forces of reaction. However, such a consummation did not come about. He tried to intervene in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute which, in my view, was not his forte. Ultimately, he suffered disappointment and humiliation. He was strongly opposed to the ‘new economic reforms’ initiated by the Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh duo, and consistently opposed them. In the same line were the Washington Consensus, the supply side economy and the regime of the WTO. They were all unacceptable to him.

The demise of the Soviet Union and other East European countries as communist states saddened him very much. But, I have a hunch that he had seen it coming. He had understood the value of the democratic polity which all these countries had denied. He once addressed a meeting organised by a socialist club which was chaired by the eminent socialist leader, Prem Bhasin, and brought out various shortcomings of the Soviet system. But, he denounced the Western propaganda barrage that the fall of the Soviet Union was the end of socialism. He said that the values on which communism and socialism were founded were still quite relevant.

Nikhil’s other major contribution was his policy on Pakistan. He was always advocating rapprochement between the two neighbours. He knew that Pakistan had a large number of democrats who had given a tough fight to the military regimes, and he was in contact with them. He was telling the politicians there that they should favourably consider federalism as an important constitutional issue. Unity in the subcontinent was necessary to thwart the neo-imperialist game of the West and was in consonance with anti-colonialism which Nikhil had always stood for. He was a persistent advocate of peace, disarmament and universal brotherhood, as he stood firm for the liberation of the whole mankind.

The demise of that doyen of Indian journalism and a consistent voice for freedom, secularism and equality has inflicted a great loss on the country. However, it is a solace that the weekly, which he had nourished for over three decades, has lived up to the traditions laid down by him. For this, the present editor has to be commended heartily.

The author is a leading Socialist ideologue.