PaRCha - JNU - AISA - 2011 ID-6287
.
A Party, Its Intellectuals, and The ldeotogical Quagmire.
! l2.11.09 "I am specially requestmg them (Congress supporters) to support the Left for the sake of peace, orderand .Democracy is underattack, peace is disturbed. We had restored peace and.
development m the state .
democracy in 1977 w1th people's support.... We hadprovided unconditional support to the Congress in the mterest of the country and to fight communalism." .
Jyoti Basu~ in an appeal to Congress supporters to vote for the Left in the recently held by-elections (see www.zeenews.com, CPI-M seeks Jyoti Bosu 's services in countering Trinamool, Nov 1. 2009) .
On the eve ofthe assembly by-polls in W Bengal, CPI(M) made a last-ditch attempt to regain at least some ofits lost turf: it got an ailing Jyoti Basu to issue a fervent appeal to Congress sympathisers to vote for the Left Front!However, this .
desperate begging ofvotes from the Congress did not bail out the CPI(M), which suffered a rout in the by-elections. It is notabll' that tht CPI(M) did not consider correcti11g its course (the course of corporate land grab, neo-liberal policies and state repression, first independently and now in partnership with the Congress). Rather, it' hoped to escape people's punishment in the elections by echoing Chidambaram in raising the .
'Maoist' bogey and appealing to the Congress to support the Left Front to counter the 'Maoist' threat! Jyoti Basu's letter refers, interestingly, to the ''restoration of peace and democracy" in 1977 by the Government headed by him. The year is signiftcctj1t -it is the year in which the entire country defeated the infamous Emergency imposed by the Congress regime. Jybt'i Babu actually appealed for the vote and support ofthe very forces ofthe Congress which brutally assaulted peace and democracy throughout the state-terror ofthe early 1970s leading up to the Emergency of 1974. Todny the CPI(M) is shnmefully partnering the Congress in once again assaulting democracy and imposing a virtual Emcrgc.tcy, raising the bogey of 'Maoism' to justify corporate land grab and all-out repres-.
sion on people's movements. To lend the 'appeal' a personal touch and 'above party' appearance, Jyoti Basu's statement was typed on blank paper rather than on the party letterhead. CPI (M) Politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP from Bengal Sitaram Yecburi endorsed the statement in the following words: "Jyoti Basu is a senior political father figure ... [he} has risen above party politics. He is talking about the country, the countrysfuture .... " .
Will SFI and CPI(M) tell us -why do the great stalwarts of CPI(M)'s parliamentary practice -be it Jyoti Basu or Somnath Chatterjee -manage to rise 'above party politics' and closer to the Congress 'party'?! (ln .
the process, Somnath Chatterjee, of course, rose so much above the party that he actually preferred to quit the party rather than vote against the Congress-led UPA Government on the floor ofParliament-and often claimed the blessing of,_. Jyoti Basu in so doing; the latter never refuted this claim). Predictably, the Congress rudely rebutTed the proposal, and Jyoti Basu's appeal only invited personal humiliation for the pnrty's senior-most lcad~:r aud ~::-.pns~:d the ~.:ompktl..! idcologi~.:nl bankruptcy that the CPI(M) is displaying.Reliance on own plank of'saving the country from Maoism') did not save the CPI(M) from suffering.
the Congress {and the Congress' yet.another drubbing in its former bastion ofWest Bengal. Meanwhile, intellectuals, who are either card-holder members of CPI(M) or are close to the CPI(M), have issued n statement (Concerned Citizens on "Maoist" Violence) that yet again reveals the intellectual .
bankruptcy of the CPI(M). r .
The statement begins with the line, "There has been a spate ofgrowing murder and violence in certain areas of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal by armed persons acting on behalfof the 'CPI (Maoist)"' Clearly the CPlCM) inte.llectuols share and echo the Indian State's own claim that 'Maoist violence' is the central issue for the country-especially in the states named above. But for the people at large, it is clear that .
it is these very states that are the main sites of corpora.te land grab, brutal eviction of adivasis and state .
repression in service of corporates. The statement then says, "While every conscious citizen opposes acts ofoppression committed by members of the exploiting clusses or individuals in the slate apparatus, the so-called "Maoists, " by their violent acts of .
vendetta, torture and gruesome killings, are gravely damaging the cause ofthe popular democratic movement. " .
Do these CPI(M) intellectuals want us to forgot the basic Marxist precepts about the State? Is oppression .
merely a set of isolated 'acts' committed by individual 'members' ofexploiting classes and state apparatuses? Isn't the .
a.
Stateitselfan organ ofclass rule? Does the State not have an agenda of oppression and repression ofpopular democratic movements? We too hold that the Maoist tactics are damaging the cause of popular democratic movements. But most of the .
CPI(M) intellectuals who are signatories to this statement must tell us: why did they not support the popula r democratic movements nt Singul', Nandigntm, Lalgarh? Why were they silent and supportive of the West .
Bengal State Govcmment when it unleashed brutal repression on those popular democratic movements? 1,.T.O. .
I.
l .
.
.
PaRCha - JNU - AISA - 2011 ID-6287
.
A Party, Its Intellectuals, and The ldeotogical Quagmire.
! l2.11.09 "I am specially requestmg them (Congress supporters) to support the Left for the sake of peace, orderand .Democracy is underattack, peace is disturbed. We had restored peace and.
development m the state .
democracy in 1977 w1th people's support.... We hadprovided unconditional support to the Congress in the mterest of the country and to fight communalism." .
Jyoti Basu~ in an appeal to Congress supporters to vote for the Left in the recently held by-elections (see www.zeenews.com, CPI-M seeks Jyoti Bosu 's services in countering Trinamool, Nov 1. 2009) .
On the eve ofthe assembly by-polls in W Bengal, CPI(M) made a last-ditch attempt to regain at least some ofits lost turf: it got an ailing Jyoti Basu to issue a fervent appeal to Congress sympathisers to vote for the Left Front!However, this .
desperate begging ofvotes from the Congress did not bail out the CPI(M), which suffered a rout in the by-elections. It is notabll' that tht CPI(M) did not consider correcti11g its course (the course of corporate land grab, neo-liberal policies and state repression, first independently and now in partnership with the Congress). Rather, it' hoped to escape people's punishment in the elections by echoing Chidambaram in raising the .
'Maoist' bogey and appealing to the Congress to support the Left Front to counter the 'Maoist' threat! Jyoti Basu's letter refers, interestingly, to the ''restoration of peace and democracy" in 1977 by the Government headed by him. The year is signiftcctj1t -it is the year in which the entire country defeated the infamous Emergency imposed by the Congress regime. Jybt'i Babu actually appealed for the vote and support ofthe very forces ofthe Congress which brutally assaulted peace and democracy throughout the state-terror ofthe early 1970s leading up to the Emergency of 1974. Todny the CPI(M) is shnmefully partnering the Congress in once again assaulting democracy and imposing a virtual Emcrgc.tcy, raising the bogey of 'Maoism' to justify corporate land grab and all-out repres-.
sion on people's movements. To lend the 'appeal' a personal touch and 'above party' appearance, Jyoti Basu's statement was typed on blank paper rather than on the party letterhead. CPI (M) Politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP from Bengal Sitaram Yecburi endorsed the statement in the following words: "Jyoti Basu is a senior political father figure ... [he} has risen above party politics. He is talking about the country, the countrysfuture .... " .
Will SFI and CPI(M) tell us -why do the great stalwarts of CPI(M)'s parliamentary practice -be it Jyoti Basu or Somnath Chatterjee -manage to rise 'above party politics' and closer to the Congress 'party'?! (ln .
the process, Somnath Chatterjee, of course, rose so much above the party that he actually preferred to quit the party rather than vote against the Congress-led UPA Government on the floor ofParliament-and often claimed the blessing of,_. Jyoti Basu in so doing; the latter never refuted this claim). Predictably, the Congress rudely rebutTed the proposal, and Jyoti Basu's appeal only invited personal humiliation for the pnrty's senior-most lcad~:r aud ~::-.pns~:d the ~.:ompktl..! idcologi~.:nl bankruptcy that the CPI(M) is displaying.Reliance on own plank of'saving the country from Maoism') did not save the CPI(M) from suffering.
the Congress {and the Congress' yet.another drubbing in its former bastion ofWest Bengal. Meanwhile, intellectuals, who are either card-holder members of CPI(M) or are close to the CPI(M), have issued n statement (Concerned Citizens on "Maoist" Violence) that yet again reveals the intellectual .
bankruptcy of the CPI(M). r .
The statement begins with the line, "There has been a spate ofgrowing murder and violence in certain areas of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and West Bengal by armed persons acting on behalfof the 'CPI (Maoist)"' Clearly the CPlCM) inte.llectuols share and echo the Indian State's own claim that 'Maoist violence' is the central issue for the country-especially in the states named above. But for the people at large, it is clear that .
it is these very states that are the main sites of corpora.te land grab, brutal eviction of adivasis and state .
repression in service of corporates. The statement then says, "While every conscious citizen opposes acts ofoppression committed by members of the exploiting clusses or individuals in the slate apparatus, the so-called "Maoists, " by their violent acts of .
vendetta, torture and gruesome killings, are gravely damaging the cause ofthe popular democratic movement. " .
Do these CPI(M) intellectuals want us to forgot the basic Marxist precepts about the State? Is oppression .
merely a set of isolated 'acts' committed by individual 'members' ofexploiting classes and state apparatuses? Isn't the .
a.
Stateitselfan organ ofclass rule? Does the State not have an agenda of oppression and repression ofpopular democratic movements? We too hold that the Maoist tactics are damaging the cause of popular democratic movements. But most of the .
CPI(M) intellectuals who are signatories to this statement must tell us: why did they not support the popula r democratic movements nt Singul', Nandigntm, Lalgarh? Why were they silent and supportive of the West .
Bengal State Govcmment when it unleashed brutal repression on those popular democratic movements? 1,.T.O. .
I.
l .
.
.