CPI Can Revive Only Through Expansion Of Organisation

By Sagarneel Sinha

Communist Party of India, which currently is going through a deep existential crisis, got a new general secretary after Sudhakar Reddy stepped down from the post citing ill-health. D. Raja, who is elected for the post, is the first Dalit to occupy the topmost post in the history of the communist parties in India. This is a major transition which took place in the party, when CPI has become a complete caricature of its illustrious past of 50s, 60s & 70s.

Raja, who is well known in the political bylanes of Delhi, has, indeed, a laborious task in front of him to revive the CPI, which is almost “in coma” in the Indian politics. The undivided CPI was once the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha but after the internal schism and division of the party into two parts — CPI and CPI(M) — the former weakened with the latter overpowering it. And later, CPI mostly remained dependent on CPM, the largest left party of the country. However, today CPM itself is going through an existential crisis just like the CPI.

The decline of both the Left parties has actually added to the already continued crisis of lack of a proper opposition voice — with the major opposition Congress finding itself trapped in a deep political crisis being unable to find a proper way to come out. At this crucial juncture, assuming the topmost post of the party, Raja is standing at the crossroads.

Raja has to first of all find out the reasons for the party’s failure to connect to the mainstream of the country’s politics instead of just continuing to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “destroying country’s federal structure and riding India towards facism”. A campaign only based on lambasting the opponents without offering a proper alternative has no takers as witnessed in the recent Lok Sabha elections with the voters rejecting Rahul Gandhi led Congress.

The problem with the CPI is even if it is somehow able to provide a credible alternative, it is completely impossible at the present time to take it to the masses — as the party is almost invisible in the country — even in its earlier strongholds of West Bengal, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha etc. So, the first duty should be to build the party across the country, including the Hindi heartland, from the grassroots. Without a proper organization, CPI will never be able to revive itself.

For the time being, CPI should abandon the practice of allying with other parties like the Congress and other caste based regional parties during the elections in the name of secularism except with CPI(M) and other Left parties like Forward Bloc and RSP. After all, the bitter truth is that there is nothing so-called a true secular party in Indian politics. The present definition of secularism is all about just opposing the BJP — an idea which is disliked by the majority of the Indian voters. Actually, secularism in India needs a new look — as it is disdained by pro-minority and caste based political parties which have exploited the idea of secularism and still continue to do so. CPI has to reach all the voters — cutting across all groups of religions, castes, ethnicity and genders — if the party is really serious about unfurling the flag of secularism in the country.

The class politics of CPI needs a complete analysis — as it needs to be refreshed by accepting the reality of caste politics in India. Party should have to change its stand on capitalism and its idea of internationalism — as it should be according to its name — Communist Party of India — not is the Communist Party of Internationalism. The party should look into the Nordic countries’ economic model — a mix of capitalism and socialist welfarism. In today’s era of consumerism, unrelenting criticism of capitalism would not bring any votes — especially the young voters — who would never turn towards the party.

The main reason for rapid decline of Left politics in India is also due to its lack of ability to attract the young voters — who will constitute 34% of the country’s population by 2020. If it is really serious to attract the youth, the party has to change its stand on consumerism and should accept it — and should use more technology — as this is the age of technology — coming out from the shades of the black and white era. The party should also be more open about industrialisation. Not only this, party has to give space to more and more youth leaders including women in the highest decision making body of the party — including the states. The inducted youth and women leaders should be aware of the Indian politics and culture and should be Indian minded — not internationalist.

Another significant factor that CPI should change its stand is on the issue of nationalism. The communist party should accept the reality that Indian nationalism, unlike European version, is inclusive and is synonymous to patriotism. So, party should avoid the unnecessary criticism of nationalism — obviously continuing to oppose the useless jingoism. The Cuban Communist Party under its legendary leader Fidel Castro followed a mixture of communism and Cuban nationalism. Same was done by Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam. Instead of just taking names, it’s high time for CPI to learn from Cuban and Vietnam model and should definitely introspect its negative approach towards nationalism.

Last but not the least, CPI has to relook its European atheist policy which has again no takers in a strong religious and spiritual country like India. It’s not that atheism is not part of the Indian culture. Atheism is indeed a part of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. European version of atheism, which the Left parties follow strictly letter by letter, applies mainly where religion is considered the primary. However, this European version of atheism won’t work in India because in the traditional Indian religions, God is only a philosophy — sometimes even absent — where nature worship and spiritualism take precedence in comparison to religiosity, which is here regarded as secondary.

Spiritualism, emphasized by Indian religions, is unlike religiosity and is mainly based on asking questions and reasoning — “just like Marxism as the Marxists do believe”. It should rather take a leaf from the Communist Party of China — which once was on a mission to crush the traditional religious structures of the country under its founder Mao-Tse-Tung, but failed to do so. As a result, presently CCP has been open about its traditional religious culture of the country which includes Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

In conclusion, I would say that CPI has to go through a lot of changes to be the party of new India and the 21st century if it wants to be the pioneer of a new Left movement in the country, at a time when the opposition space is empty. It remains to be seen what D. Raja does in the upcoming future to revive the CPI. (IPA Service)