LEFT SHOULD TRY TO GET A LITTLE "RIGHT"

Hartals, strikes, Dharnas, resentment, obstructions, etc have all become synonymous with the Communist parties in India. Even when they did not matter to the health of the Government, they tried all their might to make Government listen to them. But not many people were bothered about 50 odd members in the House. Their oppositions to almost all decisions pertaining to economic affairs and reforms is world known.And that is understandable, given that their theory about life and economy is averse to the general opinion, and which sounds quite good and seems excellent on paper. But all these are fantastic and have virtually little practicality in reality. No, I am not saying that that Marxist policies have no relevance and that they are all gibberish. But all I am saying IS that any policy, whether capitalist, or Leftist cannot be blindly followed and that they need to be adopted and evolved with the environment, in which its thriving, for its proper survival, lest it perishes with time.
When former USSR or China or any other country adopted communism or socialism, they just did not blindly followed Hegel or Marx. But they applied the basic principles of those great men and produced their own specific versions. We thus have Leninism, Maoism, etc. Again none of the communist countrIESjust stayed in History and followed word by word what their forefathers had said.Take China for example, from Mao to Deng Xiaping to Wen Jiabo, the Chinese policies have never remained static, but always evolved with times and needs.

When it comes to Indian Communists, most of them appear to be great scholastics of Communist Manifesto, but very few talk about the practicality and a kind of socialism that is conducive to the Indian subcontinent.
So we may have pioneers of Communism in India S.A. Dange or Mujaffar Ahmed; or among contemporaires like, Jyoti Basu, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Buddhadev or Prakash Karat. But none could talk of a pan Indian form of Communism.

The current deadlock over Nuclear issue is just an example of ignorance of the Left, when entire country seems to be with the Government, as recent opinion polls suggest.Its high time that the Left Gurus try to get their basics correct and come a little right to their age old stand.

(Originally written on 27 Aug, 2007)