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Saturday, August 16, 2014

Burning funeral pyre - 1



Funeral pyre is still burning with a flame. Time is speechless. Rumination of past glory is going on in deaf silence. Everyone in the funeral rally is struck with dumb. Why does it happen so? The condition was becoming gradually gloomy. But so sharp, none of us perhaps anticipated it. It was the virus of carcinoma. Everyone is well conversant of the virus being a malignant one. Question of survival of a carcinoma victim is undoubtedly a remote chance. But an attachment of long 34 years can never be torn out so easily without a shocking pain in aggrieved heart. Erosion was started slowly and stealthily. But none understood that the downfall was so close. Yet it happened. The left Front Government led by Communist Party of India (Marxist) was practically washed away from West Bengal with a never-to-imagine humiliating profile. It’s a horrible experience.
So many opinions, wanted or unwanted, are flooring up to justify the debacle. There runs a very common saying - “A Great Civilization Never Destroys Unless It Destroys From Within”. Civilization develops in exchange of many Cry, Sweat and Blood. No civilization can be destructed if the seeds of destruction are hidden inside it. The history of the world is always ready to exhibit so many instances in support to this quotation. If the reliability and credibility of a civilization are eaten away in due deliberation, the destruction of it is the ultimate inevitability. No panacea can defer the ruining of that. Now it is a striking query why did it take place and what were the irreparable lapses or better be termed as flaws in 34 years regime of the Left Front Government, considered as a civilization. Analytical searching of it is the call of time. It can never be bypassed because future and future generation will not then forgive us, on the contrary they will ensure our placement in the liter bin of history.
I do admit that I am not a political analyzer. I am yet to understand the tits bits of politics. I am not at all ashamed of my low profile. Someone may call me a novice in this context. I care a fig for that. But one thing I understand that politics aims at to do the well being of all, especially for the oppressed and have-nots. Politics out of Marxian philosophy aims at the true emancipation proletariat from the grip of exploitation and deprivation. This philosophy teaches us the lessons of sacrifice for the interest of others. Intense mass movements are the basic formula of Marxian movements to defeat the reactionary forces that accelerate the propensities of exploitation and deprivation. Marxian philosophy is not a relative concept. It is well tested and the result of the litmus test approves the justifiability and appropriateness of Marxism so long the oppression of common people will continue. The more the Marxism is challenged, the more it approves its rising importance in the soil of our society, beyond doubt decaying out of the erosion of moral values. Marxism is infallible, yet that got collapsed in West Bengal.
Many of the aspirant think-tanks are confused to find out the reasons behind the debacle. Confusions there may be, but fact is fact. I openly declare that I am a left personality and I am proud of it. I dream true emancipation of proletariat. I dream the shackles of captivity of them being torn out. It is my lifelong dream and I don’t want to be spared of my dream even at the cost of my life. Yet I am undone but to expose my explicitly clear views as it is the call of time to go for criticism from within. Right way of criticism does not enfeeble the foundation of the ism, on the other hand it emboldens the foundation of the ism especially based on Marxian Philosophy. I invite a strong debate, obviously in an unbiased way if my placement interprets wrongly to anybody else.
Marxism does not count whether it is in power or not. It is not static. It moves on dialects. The society is changing, the social ingredients are changing, the concepts of social interactions are changing and Marxism will remain static, it is absolutely impractical to think. But basic elements of Marxism are not at all amenable. Tactical lines may be changed with the changing scenario, but strategic outlines can never be altered.
I would like to go back few decades. As the Communist Party of India (Marxist) took the leading part to form the Left Front Government, a new concept of coalition government on left orientation, my analysis will spin round this political party in particular. I would like to start from the Salkia Plenum of the party. After a long debate on the reschedule of the party ideology it was decided from the views of the majority of the participating senior and responsible party members that the party would move now onwards on quality and quantity both, only quality consciousness would not satisfy the demand of the time. Let common people be allowed to come inside the party and after that their quality would be raised through continuous cultivation of party philosophy. The party cannot be owned by a few people only. The approach was undoubtedly supportive. If quantity and quality move side by side the magnificence of the party is sure to be delightful. As an aftermath effect of the resolution being taken the doors of coming inside the party were opened and common people took a great interest to come inside the party. The volume of the party was increased with representations of general people from different sections of the society. So long it was all right. The party leaderships were also happy to experience the good effects of the political resolution.
Problems came in the next phase. In question of party followers and party activists being educated in party education from the base level that was not taken much care of. Comrade Lenin told in several times that the communist party can never stand on its strong foundation if party education is sidelined. A party activist must learn the philosophy of the communist party by heart either by reading or by attending party classes. The then leadership emphasized more importance to take part in party programmes in order to build up emotions and attachments to party organization. But no emotion or attachment is everlasting unless that is well synthesized with party education. Party loyalists may increase by participating in party programmes, but real party comrades are thus not built up. It is party education with even participation in party programmes rocksolids the foundation of party comrades. Party education helps to step up the party knowledge. A party comrade without proper party education or party knowledge can never propel his functioning inside the party in exact form. Reluctantly the party gets ideologically enfeebled, though in consideration with numeric the party is advancing. We all know that knowledge fertile the ideas and it promotes the dialectical concepts. Absence of true dialectical approaches eats away the immense potential of the party organization. Without party education servile flatters to any leader in particular can be generated without raising any contradiction, but that does not substantiate the benefits of the party organization itself. This unadultered truth is still not understandable to the present party leaders.
When some higher tire party leader is expelled from the party organization, no doubt justified in accordance with the assessment of party think-tanks, his band of followers, not party followers or activists, quit the party organization as a body. This is the clear indication of the dearth of party education. A party activist, truly educated in party education can never be a servile flatter to any leader in particular. Why does it happen? What are the sources of these happenings in renewal from long back to today even? How do such deviations crop up? Marxist ideology is still unchallenged because Karl Marx is the only social philosopher who has correctly established the Dialectical Materialism within a society in consonance with Historical Materialism. Marxism is science because it deals with both social practice with disparities and economic crisis evoked thereby out of it. Now it is high time to invite debates and discussions on it in a liberalized look and with no biasness and prejudices.
“Power to More Power and More Power to Supreme Power” – is very common trend of each and every individual. The corridor of power is always illusive. If any man, dignified or undignified no matter, is in the habit of walking in the corridor of power he wants to enjoy the absolute power and gradually the vices bureaucratic power nest in him safely. It is same in the party organization too. The leadership of the communist party is well tested. Their sacrifices for the party can never be underscored. Following the principles of inner party struggle the differences of opinion in party line will very much exist in them. They have gone through different litmus tests in order to endorse their dedication and commitment to the party organization. In communist movements they are the milestones. How do their deviations in many cases be explained? It is simply because of self thinking and aspirations in excess. Ego problem is a factor to be counted. It is nothing wrong in self-aspiration. But if that aspiration is hyped up in unrealistically that is liable to be criticized. Over ambitious leadership always wants to remain at the nucleus of absolute power. It is so wished because they always want to have a long listing of their own followers instead of the followers of party organization. It is thus happened because of bureaucratic trend in the party organization. It is a vice and the leadership of the party did not take adequate care, I may be wrong, to eliminate it. And thus virus of groupism breaks out in an epidemic form in the party organization. Critics will iconize it as inner party struggle. There exists no narrowness and meanness in this struggle, on the other side the inner party struggle flourishes the party organization in a liberalized look. There is no room for orthodoxy or vested interest thinking in a communist party organization and it is discovered gradually on the rife. So the party suffers.
Communist Party organization flourishes when the cultural wings of it function evenly among common people. Every communist party organization has a definite stream of culture. Different cultural activities promote the concept of party organization among general mass. Many conceptual ideas of the party organization can be communicated effectively to the general people through cultural programmes. It is needless to mention that the cultural activities of the party organization are underscored and the reason is still being unknown to me. Wrangling of Marxian theory appears in many cases insipid and dull to common people. People don’t want to hear always the long educational lecturing on substantiality of Marxian Philosophy. Reason is always reason binding. In this fast moving world all are now very busy with their tight schedule of work. A shot street drama is liked by all because of its audio-visual display. People accept it by default. The word gang rape is a very common phenomenon of the day. When we read in the newspaper that a teenage girl is brutally raped by a group of rapist we become angry, but we visualize that in a street drama we become infuriated. The need of street drama can never be unworthy then. We can distinctly remember the significant role of Group Theatres during emergency period. These Group Theatres raised mass awareness against the atrocities of emergency period. The Group Theatre personalities had to face strong oppositions at the time of staging the drama publicly. But they didn’t flinch back and contributed chiefly to raise mass awareness against the Emergency. How strangely that cultural field remains almost mute in recent past on unknown reasons. Who is going to explain it?
Fact remains that different Group Theatre Organizations has received Grant-in-aid from M.P. or M.L.A. quota. But that is not enough to activate an organization. The existence of a cultural organization comes into being by constant nurturing. There appears a basic shortcoming. Mere funding Grant-in-aid is not enough for the survival of a cultural organization. The party organization should be an associative power of such organization. It requires a constant touch of the cultural forum of the party organizations with those cultural organizations, no doubt the reflector of the society with all its problems, for the honest exposure subject to the problems of the society. But sorry to say that the party organization did not give much importance to its cultural forum and resultantly the party organization enfeebles. Who is going to take the responsibility of slow poisoning the party organization? That is none but the party think-tanks. I can cite one example. Safdar Hasmi was brutally murdered on an open road of Delhi when he was staging a street drama “Halla Boll”. This episode rocked the cultural arena of India with ushering in protest. It rendered a tremendous influence in the mind of toiling mass. After that under the attraction of time and age the memory of that sordid episode gradually faded out from our mind. Safdar Hasmi is now a forgettable memory in the mind of present generation of the party activists. But some memories require to be always enlivened for the interest of the party organization. Mere writing a column in the party spokesman is not enough to pay homage to the contributions of those martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the cause of the party.
Electronic media is now reigning unchallenged. It is always delivering a culture not in consonance with the culture of the common people. Youths, the helmsman of future, are now addicted to T.V. culture. The electronic media including the print media is always subscribing a culture that contradicts the main stream of the culture of the working class force. Without ruling out the necessity of T.V. in present world for updating of information it is often found that party activists are sitting in the party offices tuning on the T.V. set. It is the ideal way for pastime. Sometimes it is felt that the storehouse of our thinking is running with paucity and electronics media will refuel our level of thinking. A communist party survives with its originality and innovative thinking. Party culture injects innovative concepts in us and that very cultural front is neglected. It is absolutely unwanted.
We often experience the party leaders moving with a disguised gravity. This disguised gravity ensures separation from the common mass. The pleasing personality is the first requisite of a party leader. That does not mean that I defend resoluteness. If higher leadership is not easy accessible to party activists even, what is about the common mass? Sometimes it appears that our leaders are fenced with iron fencing. There runs two ways thinking while anyone sits to analyze the reason of such disguised violence. The first one is to earn the prestige of the party activists as the pedagogue of the party organization and the second one is not to keep in close touch with them as they represent the subordinate class. They don’t want to accept their accountability to be answerable to the party loyalists or common people. If my contention stands wrong none but I will be the happiest person. Now it is the turn of the higher leadership to define it.
For some obvious reasons some faces are denied to the common people. Common people are not ready to accept right words at all from denied faces. Common people discard some faces out of their experience of life. Their credibility to the common people is bottom touching. The existence of such faces in our party organization is not uncommon. People perhaps listen to them, but do not give much importance to their words, whatever relevancy or subjective material in his speech does exist because the face itself is denied. A denied face can never be a party spokesman. Credibility, reliability and trustworthiness are the three fundamental criteria of a party leader. None can overrule this axiomatic truth. Yet these non-accepted leaderships will speak and resultantly common people will repel. Every higher tire leadership admits it, but the vanity of power does not allow them to take appropriate steps. Water comes down following the slope. If the water is found dirty at the bottom level it explicitly defines the water in the up-level is dirty. A decomposing brain never breeds anything better and it is always to be remembered.
There appears an erosion of moral values in the floor level leaderships who are entrusted to keep liaison between common people and the higher tire leaderships. They act as the linkman. Their responsibility is enormous. If they fail to execute their duties precisely and perfectly party organization suffers. Their role is now experienced standing before question marks. Truly speaking this scrupulous leadership seeks the prestige of the left, but relies upon the privilege of the right. That is the real fallacy of mass separation. Many may question, should higher tire leadership be exempted of this virus. I prefer to remain noncommittal in this context. The flowing stream of events approves privilege of the right dominates the prestige of the left in usual cases. It is a traditional thinking that I will enjoy comforts of life. And it is the gateway of corruption. Earning against hard labour is always ethical, but if earning is indulged by means of easy money capitalizing position and power it’s a crime. It is a factor to be counted levying much importance.
The influx of unwanted people inside the party realm is also a reason for grim setback of the communist party in West Bengal. West Bengal has long been the citadel of radical thoughts of communist party in India. Underprivileged and exploited millions rely upon Left as the source of inspiration and guidance of their struggle. The assiduity with which CPI(M) welded together all sections of people deserves high acclaim. The party has been trying hard to build up a well knit bonding between the organized and unorganized forces by subscribing frontline leadership to their struggles and agitations. It also deserves high appreciation. To take up the baton of leadership standing in the front line is the long heritage of the CPI(M) party. It has been our long observation and toiling mass lends their profound support to this party. But unwanted forces inside the party spoil the fruits of party struggle for long. Different activities of them, not in tune with the party line and philosophy and coupled with corruption distorted the image of the party organization. In many cases toiling mass did not find any conformity with their speech and line of action. Naturally they began to withdraw their support from the party out of sensitiveness and grief. The leadership of the party organization came to understand this but nepotism and corruption appeared before them as an insurmountable barrier and this did not allow them to take any stern decision for the well being of the party organization. Rome was not built in a day and at the same time was not collapsed in a day. The vastness of the organization of the CPI(M) has not built up in a day and the erosion of the organizational base is not a bolt from the blue. It was felt, but untimely intervention delayed rapture curing procedure. So the party organization is now suffering. Nothing will come back so soon. The party organization will come back in power in exchange of profuse bloodshed. It is now very much needed to amputate the wings of evil forces inside the party, failing which the party organization will succumb.
Recurring electoral triumphs for long 34 years with brute majority in the West Bengal Assembly Election had made top brass leadership of the party in the understanding that they have taken the lease to rule West Bengal. The invincibility of the Left Front Government can never be challenged. In fact they began to run in self-complacence. It is self-conceit that prevents doing self-analysis and self-criticism. The insolence of repeated victory in the electoral fight made the party leadership totally blind of their own deviation from the party line and philosophy. They failed to understand that lending concession to the toiling mass or common people within the prescribed format of the parliamentary democracy is not enough to remain in power for good.
There is a breakeven point of every exchange policy. As soon as that point is crossed trouble starts shooting. It was very much in need to change character and attitude of the common people in respect to demand and supply policy. Common people started thinking that Left Front Government is a milky cow with a capacity to fulfill all their demands. With a steady change in the global infrastructural scenario the characteristics of the demand change its complexion and dissatisfaction of general mass initiates. It is now the era of consumerism. It gears up the demand of us with no consideration to our capacity or ability. As a result of this, there starts a greater self-contradiction in everybody’s within. Dissatisfaction is such a thing that extends its boundary in a galloping way.
The assumption of invincibility and supremacy in not-to-care attitude indulged stagnancy both in ideology and praxis in the party organization. Sense of discipline and militancy went down out of over confidence. The behavioural language of many vanity stricken leaderships got abruptly changed. Even they were not conscious in selection of the words while delivering their speech. It is not becoming for the communist leadership. Common people do not like it though opposition leaders are in the habit of using filth languages. We all want to see the restrained leadership in the communist party organization. Leaders began to talk freestyle. They framed different opinions on the same issue. People got confused with their statements and became suspicious with veracity of their statements. The agendas of the secret party secretariat meeting and the outcome of the discussions are coming out publicly in the daily newspapers. How does it happen? Who is responsible for it? Is it called the militancy of the communist party? Ground level comrades will be punished for minimum flaw and upper tire leadership will remain exempted. It is really an enigma. This is also a reason of erosion in the vote-bank of the party.
The chemistry of democratic centralization still runs with ambiguity. The decision of the majority party members inside the party is definitely to be carried out. Sometimes it is well felt that the word democratic centralization is not convincing. The voice of the dissenters is either ostracized or thrown out. The leadership tells what they love to tell. But the consequences come upon the party organization and general cadres.        
Once confidence begins eroding it erodes as a landslide. Consequently the mass support to the Left Front Government started running at low ebb out of the demand not being fulfilled according to expectation. Media terrorism took the full advantage of this unrest situation. Constant vituperation of different Electronic Medias and Print Medias came into being. Those Medias capitalized the minimum flaws and shortcomings of the Left Front Government with larger aperture and brought those to the attention of common people without assigning the actual reason behind it. Truly speaking, common people hardly understand the reason and they always seek benefit. Oppositions took this opportunity and allured common people with unrealistic, false and hyped up promises. These promises did not have any base to materialize. Yet common people misunderstood the line of action of the Left Front Government and casted their vote against anti-incumbency. The Left Front Government was thus toppled. Actually the result of the Assembly vote reflected negative polling. Common people were vexed with so-called non dignified party leaderships and they went against the government to teach a lesson.
Administrative lapses and indecision are also a vital factor to account for the debacle. The fruits of different pro-people decisions taken by the Left Front Government are hijacked in the midway in many cases and it did not reach to the ground level. There was a steady lacuna on the part of administrative monitoring. Questions are coming up very honestly what does the administration do if party leaders or influential directly intervene in the course of action of the administration? The freedom of administrative work in so many cases got stalled because of unauthorized intervention of the party leadership. The distribution of benefits was contaminated with the virus of nepotism. The surveillance of the higher tire leadership was not at all appropriate. Besides this, people are not ready to accept in any indecisive action on the part of the left government. When the highway was obstructed days after days on Singur issue stern administrative step was required to bulldoze the movement for the greater interest of the state. If the automobile factory by Tata would have been set up a new message is sure to go to the industrialists that West Bengal is industry-friendly state and the doors of the possibilities of industrialization in west Bengal would have been opened further wider. In this juncture period any kind of indecisive step is definitely to be condemned. But that was happened. What was the yardstick of measurement of this strange decision being taken by the government? There exists a sharp difference between the government led by the communist party and the government formed by other national or regional parties of India. People count this difference. When it stands negated people withdraw their support from that left government out of frustration. Thus it happened.
The catastrophe in West Bengal does not nullify the importance of an ideologically resolute left formation to mobilize the strong resistance against the plundering of our national economy in the term of economic liberalization. The situation greater collaboration, greater confederation and greater left orientation to come out from the apparent crisis left thinking. Now it requires absolute consolidation of left forces. Shaking of all the political prejudices every left and democratic force should come forward in order to consolidate their strength against imperialistic force led by the U.S. Imperialism. Different progressive forces should not be exempted to form greater collaboration. The CPI(M) Party should take the best initiative to form greater confederation and greater collaboration of left, democratic and progressive forces without assigning any “DADAGIRI” (commanding) attitude. Prestige and dignity of the small parties are definitely to be well protected and well fortified. The rejuvenation of the left and democratic forces are very much mandatory not for the welfare of the West Bengal only, but for the nation as a whole. Even encountering unwanted not unexpected debacle many leaders of the communist party are consciously not spared of bureaucratic vises. Should the party organization [C.P.I. (M)] allow it to continue without any restriction being imposed? I feel that the higher tire party leadership is desperately thinking to come out of the crisis. Please do come forward. Let us all try to retrieve the glory of the LEFT & PROGRESSIVE FORCES.

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