A clear and cohesive agenda

The 16th congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) draws up a three-pronged strategy to fight the threat of communalism, organise struggles against the policy of economic liberalisation and forge a 'third front' of democratic and secular parties and the Left.

VENKITESH RAMAKRISHNAN
in Calcutta

IN January 1992, when the Communist Party of India (Marxist) held its 14th congress in Chennai, the party was confronted with a critical situation the likes of which it had not faced since its inception in 1964. If the challenge before the party in 1964 related to the split in the Communist movement in India as well as internationally - into two camps led respectively by the Communist parties of China and the Soviet Union - the challenge now was posed by the break-up of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the socialist bloc in Europe. Prophets of doom had a field day. Some of them predicted that with the disintegration of the socialist bloc, the CPI(M) had lost its source of ideological and political inspiration and would not be able to retain sway over its areas of strength, such as Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura; others went so far as to proclaim that the 14th congress would be forced to review the very relevance of Marxism-Leninism.

Nothing of that sort, however, happened. The 14th congress debated at length the ideological, political and organisational ramifications of the new international situation and came up with policies and action plans to face the future with the party's basic commitments intact. Over the past six years, the CPI(M) has not only retained its areas of strength but also played a greater and more significant role in national politics.

A similar, but qualitatively different, situation faced the CPI(M) prior to the 16th congress, held in Calcutta between October 5 and 11. The challenge this time emerged from the national political situation rather than from international developments. Since the 15th congress, held in Chandigarh in 1995, the national situation had undergone a radical transformation: the most serious challenge was posed by the emergence of the Bharatiya Janata Party as the ruling force at the Centre. Two general elections had been held between the Chandigarh and Calcutta congresses; in the second of these elections, held in February-March 1998, the United Front, an alliance of bourgeois secular parties and the Left, had lost ground to the BJP and the Congress(I) and had begun to disintegrate, with some of its constituent regional parties moving closer to the BJP owing to regional pressures and preoccupations.

SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH
CPI (M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet addressing the rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Calcutta on October 11, the concluding day of the party's 16th congress.

In the run-up to the 16th congress, some political commentators said that the CPI(M) was not in a position to evolve a cogent line to address the present political situation. In their reckoning, the CPI(M) would find itself incapable of challenging the BJP effectively as any move in that direction would entail cooperation with the Congress(I), which the CPI(M) had for long identified as its "principal enemy". The fact that the Congress(I) is the CPI(M)'s main political opponent in the Marxist party's areas of strength was portrayed as an insurmountable practical problem in the path of the CPI(M) advancing an effective political strategy against the BJP.

Commentators also concluded, for reasons of their own, that the CPI(M) was divided down the middle on the question of cooperating with the Congress(I). As evidence of this was cited West Bengal Chief Minister and Polit Bureau member Jyoti Basu's remark that the party had committed a "historic blunder" in rejecting the offer to lead the U.F. Government in 1996 with the support of the Congress(I). It was contended that owing to the perceived confusion on such vital questions, the CPI(M) would be unable to advance its professed objective of developing a "third force" comprising Left, secular and democratic parties.

HOWEVER, the 16th congress of the CPI(M) belied these predictions. After prolonged deliberations on the draft political resolution - which had been circulated among party units across the country in advance - and the political and organisational report, the 683 delegates at the conference unanimously put forward a three-pronged strategy that is aimed at fighting the threat of communalism as represented by the BJP and its associates, launching mass movements and struggles against the policy of economic liberalisation that has aggravated the hardships of the common people, and reforging the "third force". The congress also asserted that greater cooperation among the Left parties, especially between the CPI(M) and the Communist Party of India, would be a key factor in advancing these proposals.

SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH
CPI(M) Polit Bureau members and CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan at the congress.

The congress categorically stated that the central task of the party would be to challenge the threat of communalism that the BJP poses. The congress also spelt out the tactical line to be pursued in the event of the BJP-led Government falling as a consequence of the CPI(M)'s efforts to combat communalism: it decided that the CPI(M) could provide as a tactical measure issue-based support to the Congress(I) to form an interim government. Contrary to media speculation, the congress was united on this matter. "As a matter of fact," party general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet told Frontline, "the convergence of opinion at the conference was so rapid that even die-hard critics of the party had no ammunition for CPI(M)-bashing."

The basic perception that guided the congress on this issue was that the policies and actions of the BJP and the rest of the Hindutva forces are detrimental to national unity. The increasing instances of attacks on the minorities in BJP-ruled States, interference in the administration of cultural and educational institutions as well as the academic syllabus to impart a Hindutva orientation, the effort to create new states without considering the consequences, the BJP's policy of nuclear jingoism and adventurism, and the pursuit of a retrograde foreign policy were all highlighted in the discussions at the congress as actions that would damage national unity. Surjeet also pointed out that the congress was clear in its perception that protection of national unity was important for the advancement of the democratic movement.

ON the question of giving issue-based support to the Congress(I) to form an alternative government if and when the BJP-led Government falls, the conference emphasised two points: that popular opinion was against going in for mid-term elections; and although both the Congress(I) and the BJP pursue the bourgeois-landlord ideology, there is a degree of difference between them on the question of their commitment to secularism. The Congress(I) cannot be termed a communal party although it had compromised with communal forces, especially during the Ayodhya mandir-masjid dispute, the congress concluded.

The congress made it clear that giving issue-based support to the Congress(I) to form a government would not mean compromising the CPI(M)'s basic ideology or forming a front or alliance with the Congress(I). It was emphasised that struggles against the policy of economic liberalisation would be directed against both the BJP and the Congress(I), as both these parties were advocates of the liberalisation process. It was pointed out forcefully that it was the Congress(I) that had "imposed" on the country the policy of liberalisation that had inflicted great damage to the country's economy.

The Congress(I)'s reaction to the CPI(M)'s decision has been mixed. While sections of the Congress(I), including official spokesperson Girija Vyas, welcomed the decision, others such as Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal leader Priyaranjan Das Munshi rejected the offer and dubbed it a "desperate move by the CPI(M)."

Surjeet said that the CPI(M) was not bothered by such responses; the party had only stated its position on the political situation. "We are not desperate to support the Congress(I)," he said. "The arithmetic of the present Lok Sabha is such that if the Congress(I) wants to form an alternative government, it will have to look for support from the Opposition parties. As we consider the BJP a greater threat, we have taken this tactical position. That is all."

Observers are of the view that the statements by Mukherjee and Das Munshi have more to do with the Congress(I)'s own organisational concerns in States such as West Bengal than with the party's official policy. What is notable, however, is that the tactical shift in the position with regard to the Congress(I) has not created any confusion in the CPI(M).

IN the background of the deliberations on the approach to be taken vis-a-vis the Congress(I), the congress affirmed that the decision of the Central Committee of the CPI(M) in May 1996 not to participate in the U.F. Government supported by the Congress(I) was right. Interestingly, this was the only issue that was put to vote at the congress. The Central Committee's decision was affirmed with 441 votes in favour and 198 against; 17 delegates chose to remain neutral on the question. According to Surjeet, what dominated the debate on the issue was the question whether the party would have been able to influence the policies of the Government better if it had joined it. There was intense debate on this question and it was ultimately decided that the Central Committee's perception of the situation that prevailed at that time was right.

THE political resolution and the political and organisational report drew attention to the BJP's "double standards" on the issue of economic liberalisation. The political resolution pointed out that the BJP had capitalised on the discontent generated by the liberalisation policy, initiated by the Congress(I) Government headed by P.V. Narasimha Rao, by launching movements advocating a "swadeshi economic policy". However, once in power the BJP had abandoned its "swadeshi" line and was following the same liberalisation policy. "In this situation," said Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat, "the struggles against communalism and the liberalisation policy are inter-linked. And the mass movements that take up these struggles would lead to the reforging of the third front."

In the political reckoning of the congress, it would not be possible to delineate the contours of the proposed third front, or name the parties that would go to make up the new front, given the pro-liberalisation tilt of many parties that were constituents of the U.F., such as the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC). However, the congress felt that the present international economic situation, characterised by a serious crisis in many capitalist economies, would help strengthen this movement. The congress noted that the present crisis had exploded the myth that globalisation and the unchecked opening-up of economies, as recommended by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, formed the panacea for all economic ills.

The political resolution and the political and organisational report pointed out that pressure from the IMF and the World Bank to open up the economies of Third World countries to international flows of speculative capital had triggered the the Mexican crisis in 1994; it had had the same effect on the South-East Asian economies in 1997. Now, the crisis was spreading.

This situation, the congress noted, had compelled many ardent advocates of liberalisation to rethink their policy. Prakash Karat pointed out that those who opposed the Left when it expressed itself against capital convertibility as proposed by the IMF and the World Bank were now saying that there was a need to review the proposal. It was in this context that the congress evaluated that the struggle against the policy of economic liberalisation would acquire a sharper edge.

PARTH SANYAL
West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu speaks at the rally.

The congress stressed the importance of formulating an alternative economic policy that would, instead of looking for inflows of foreign capital, seek to raise domestic resources. The alternative policy would also seek to widen the tax net, increase the level of direct taxes on affluent sections, curb inessential expenditure and increase public investment.

The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the TMC have evinced interest in the proposals that emerged from the congress, including the need to reforge the third alternative.

SOME of the resolutions passed identified areas for action in the pursuit of struggles against communalism and the policy of economic liberalisation. The resolution that condemned the attacks on minority Christians by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh called upon all party units and cadres to "go among the people and expose the diabolical game plan of the Hindutva forces." This call was followed up by the visit of a team of CPI(M) Members of Parliament to Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh, where a group of nuns were raped recently (Frontline, October 23).

Another resolution expressed solidarity with the call for a countrywide strike given by the All India Convention of the National Platform of Mass Organisations; this is seen as the first concrete step in the struggle against the policy of economic liberalisation. The resolution pointed out that the strike was intended to raise a voice of protest against the BJP-led Government's vigorous implementation of the structural adjustment programme authored by the World Bank and the IMF. The congress said that the strike would highlight the steep rise in the prices of essential commodities under the BJP-led Government and the rise in the percentage of people living below the poverty line on account of the budgetary proposals of the BJP-led Government.

PARTH SANYAL
Inside the auditorium at Nazrul Manch, the main venue of the congress.

Other resolutions passed at the congress included one on the situation in Tripura, where extremist violence has claimed many innocent lives and disturbed normal life. The resolution noted that "the intensification of attacks by extremist groups is taking place in the background of the decision of the BJP-led Government to withdraw a substantial number of armed forces deployed in the State."

THAT greater cooperation among the Left parties, particularly between the CPI and the CPI(M), would be one of the key factors in pursuing the three-pronged strategy formulated by the congress was evident during the course of the conference. CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan, addressing the inaugural session of the congress, said that in his view, "the core of our tactics in the coming period is the issue of Communist unity." He added that "there has to be closer coordination at all levels of the CPI and the CPI(M) and the mass organisations led by them so as to strengthen Left unity and form a renewed front of secular-democratic and Left parties." Bardhan's views were received with ovation.

In the final analysis, contrary to speculation in sections of the media and prophecies of some political pundits about "confusion" in the CPI(M), the party has proved that there is absolute clarity about its political and ideological positions; it has also identified the tasks and challenges ahead. By deciding to give issue-based support to the Congress(I) to form a government if the BJP-led Government falls, the congress has addressed the immediate political situation as no other congress has done in the past.

However, as the deliberations at the congress underscored, the party does face serious challenges with regard to converting its mass appeal into organisational and political strength. The lack of growth in areas other than the party's traditional strongholds and the emergence of "bourgeois vices" among some sections of the party were causes of concern at the congress. The ultimate success of the strategy evolved at the congress as well as the extent to which the long-term objectives of the party, such as the completion of people's democratic revolution in the country, are realised would depend largely on how far the CPI(M) is able to sharpen its organisational strengths and undertake the necessary processes of rectification.

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