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In the clash of the doctrinaire-versus-pragmatist in the largest congregation of communists in India, even the semblance of a plausible ideological challenge to the ruling BJP was reduced to a caricature. Prakash Karat, the taciturn ideologue in the CPI(M), prevailed over the affable general secretary Sitaram Yechury over the question of an alliance with the Congress. That Yechury should keep defending his “pro-Congress” line reflects his disconnect with the political situation. While he has chosen to extensively talk to the media to justify his position, Karat has taken to chiding the media about its illiteracy on such matters.
This begs the question: Do these comrades need to be educated on what constitutes news in the mainstream media today? Shouldn’t more care have been paid to how their different lines would play out? When even a “bourgeois-landlord” party like the Congress could rally around an upstart like Hardik Patel to score politically in Gujarat, why have the communists shown themselves to be simultaneously opaque and flippant? Where is the populism that has galvanised the Left in South America and Europe?
It is also pertinent to mention that this is probably the first time that Parliament has no effective and articulate voice from the Left. From AK Gopalan and Somnath Chatterjee to Sitaram Yechury himself, the Left wielded an influence that always surpassed their numerical strength in both Houses. While the CPI(M has decided not to get Yechury back into the Rajya Sabha, the Left quarters now echo with the comical resonance of the expulsion recently of the newly-elected Ritabrata Banerjee. Banerjee, who has since taken to slandering his former party at every given opportunity, was expelled for his “lavish lifestyle” synonymous with Mont Blanc pens and Apple watches.
As elections in Tripura approach, the Left hurtles towards further irrelevance. The blame must go to both Yechury and Karat equally for reducing India’s biggest communist party to a bunch of squabbling amateurs.
Associate Editor
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