Jyoti Basu's Legacy
By Partha Banerjee
19 January, 2010
Countercurrents.org
-One-
The Legacy
Jyoti Basu, an icon of Indian socialism, died in Kolkata. He was 95. With him, an important era of South Asian politics passed too.
Even though Basu belonged to the Communist Party of India that called itself Marxist-Stalinist, observers always thought he was more of a social democrat, a practitioner of realpolitik. His lifelong activities and particularly his later years demonstrated a rather moderate, inclusive philosophy that made him well-accepted and respected not just to the hard left in India, but to its splintered progressives, and even to some moderate conservatives. He's also been a believer of peoples' democracy voting style, much to the chagrin of the election-boycotting far left (this is not to say that election democracy worked wonderfully in India; in fact, the powerless majority might say it's been a window dressing and validation of the status quo -- just like the U.S.). Add to that his personal acumen: vast knowledge and experience about India and world politics, personal integrity, and ability to create and sustain broad coalitions.
These were exceptional attributes for a professional politician, especially in today's India, that made him the longest-serving chief minister of the state of West Bengal – a once-prosperous state that got the brunt of a British partition and the Bangladesh liberation war with massive bloodshed, refugee and economic crises. In 2000, after twenty-three years as the head of state, he voluntarily stepped down and transferred the mantle to one of his fellow torchbearers.
Meanwhile, in 1996, when a nationally elected moderate, left-of-center alliance asked him to be India's next prime minister -- the most powerful throne in the subcontinent -- he sacrificed it because his own Communist Party’s politburo decided not to assume the position on ideological reasons some might call anachronism. Later, Basu himself called the decision a "historic blunder." To millions of Indians (including many who do not believe in vote-democracy), he would undoubtedly be a much more qualified head of the country than most others that came before or after.
As a card-carrying member of India's Communist Party who got his training both in left politics and law in 1930's London, where he was involved with the anti-imperialist freedom struggle, he practiced and followed rules and dictates ardently. History, however, tells us that even within his own party, he often sided with the moderates, and challenged hardcore policies he found non-pragmatic and out of touch. Other than the 1996 decision not to make Basu the Indian prime minister – one that dashed hopes of left-liberals, students, youth and labor unions, and eventually disempowered Indian progressives and anti-war forces – on significant national and international issues Basu challenged the communist orthodoxy and diehard left. In many instances, he did not succeed: Indian communist parties have had an unfortunate dogmatic saga to put international politics before national interests, alienating the middle mass. Example: in 1960’s, just before a devastating Chinese military aggression on Indian borders that killed many soldiers and civilians and humiliated the nation, Basu’s party in its national convention drew up a resolution expressing faith in Chinese communists and their peaceful solidarity with Indian comrades. Basu and his ally E.M.S. Namboodiripad dissented on the party's position that created major anti-left sentiments in India; right-wing and centrist-capitalist groups exploited it to their advantage. In 1967, a right-center conservative coalition won important state elections for the first time in post-partition India.
My own observation is that because Basu and his colleagues' inclusive realpolitik failed within their own party where doctrines came first and ground reality second, the once-mighty, undivided left in India gradually lost its influence even in stronghold states like West Bengal, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Punjab, broke up in countless factions, became victims of serious, protracted infighting and bloodshed, and in post-Soviet era, largely became powerless, if not marginalized. Even in states like West Bengal and Kerala where left coalition governments were in power for decades, Jyoti Basu’s departure from active politics created a major leadership vacuum, and a once-unsullied left movement that implemented major land reform empowering landless farmers became synonymous with India’s trademark government inefficiencies, bureaucracies, inertia, hooliganism and corruption. Public sector education, employment and health – three traditional benchmark areas of any supposedly progressive administration – suffered the worst; rampant privatization and an unprecedented socioeconomic divide took place.
Consequently, the next-generation Indian youth that grew up in a make-believe MTV-globalized world with little understanding of working peoples’ history of struggle, lost respect for any notion of a non-materialist, moderate yet fanaticism-free world, let alone a equity-driven, peaceful society and living.
Along with it, the vast majority of India's forever oppressed -- rural and urban farm and factory workers, dalits and untouchables, working Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and especially the poorest of the poor women, men and children -- lost hope for a dignified life where their children would also share in the advances of the so-called modern, globalized world: where they would also be able to go to the same school as their affluent or upper-caste neighbors, drink water from the same well and go to the same temple, marry in a dowry-free marriage, or find some basic health care for their ailing, old parents. Where young women’s rights and respect would not be violated by local musclemen, police, smugglers or mafia.
Today's "modern and globalized" (call it wealth-crazy) India is sadly an epitome of a class, race, caste, gender, region- and religion-splintered society, where people increasingly believe in violence to combat violence, terror to fight terror. Where harmony is an outdated concept. Unity in Diversity, however rudimentary it was, is a matter of the past. India is now sitting on a live volcano. With demise of Jyoti Basu and his era of politics of on-the-ground coalition-building, chances to put the country back together are now ever so remote.
-Two-
My Problems with Indian Left
Let's take a quick history lesson on Indian politics. Of course, the informed reader might brand my observations as biased or uninformed and coming from someone who never belonged to a communist party; and that it's coming from someone who was deeply involved with right-wing politics for nearly twenty years when Jyoti Basu and Indian left were at the helm of affairs. Yet, the informed reader might have already known about my total disillusionment and departure from Hindu fundamentalist RSS and BJP that led to my book on this subject. The informed might also know about my progressive politics, activism and writing for the past twenty-five years, especially during my living as a graduate student-turned-immigrant in USA. Although, along with building my own credibility as a grassroots observer both in Indian and American politics, I must confess that I've never believed in hardcore left politics, ever more so disbelieved in right-wing politics based on bigotry and hate, and in recent years, I've really developed a strong aversion for centrist politics where the elite and privileged run the show keeping status quo and profit, perennially disempowering the poor. At the same time, to major disappointment and perhaps some dismay of friends, I've been a strong believer of peaceful democratic politics in the U.S., worked hard for a Barack Obama election, and kept faith in his politics of inclusion, in spite of all the problems and missteps his administration has so far caused.
Phew...what a relief! It's off my chest now.
Former Speaker of Indian parliament Somnath Chatterjee, a lifelong Jyoti Basu follower whom Communist Party of India (Marxist) expelled recently on his position on the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, said after Basu’s death that his party's decision to pull out of the Congress-led India government was a disastrous one that contributed to the Left Front government's debacle in West Bengal. He said Jyoti Basu did not support the pull-out.
I'm not so sure about Chatterjee's assertion. That's not the politics of pragmatism I'm talking about. Indian vote-left has stuck with the centrist Congress administration for decades now, without ever being an active part of it. Sticking with a centrist, corrupt, pro-rich, inefficient government just to help it be in power has not ever helped the Indian left to increase or assume power of its own. If anything, it's created an illusion that after all, the Congress-led national government is a lesser evil and worth supporting, and pulling out would bring back the right-wing, communal forces leading to more bloodshed.
But that's only an illusion. Indian vote-left spearheaded by the two major communist factions CPI and CPI(Marxist) -- groups that long separated on pro-Soviet, pro-China lines -- once had sharp differences which national government to support. Pro-Soviet CPI always supported a violently repressive, dictatorial Congress government led by Indira Gandhi, and once-pro-China CPI(M) and vote-boycotting, more pro-China CPI(Marxist-Leninist) vehemently opposed it. CPI(M) later supported an anti-dictatorship movement led by socialist Jay Prakash Narayan (who also relinquished the position of prime minister) that for the first time helped topple the Congress regime at the national level, to be replaced by an equally inefficient and ideologically-splintered Janata Party administration, one that Jyoti Basu's party supported briefly, only to pull out in two years, causing its downfall. Many thought, pulling out of the Manmohan Singh government (one that Chatterjee referred to) would have the same effect; however, it survived with help from dubious, caste-based politicians – allegedly, with use of massive bribes. CPI(M-L), however, always opposed both the Congress and Janata Party governments; one might say, their vote-boycotting line would not let them support any elected administrations.
I guess, in hindsight, my problem with the Indian left has been that I've never believed in politics of disengagement. I see little difference between CPI and CPI(M)'s apparently principled decision not to actively involve in national administrations and that of anti-parliamentary-democracy CPI(M-L) not to support any elected governments. On that note, I now strongly support Jyoti Basu's assessment that not assuming power in 1996 when there was a golden opportunity was indeed a historic blunder. There's a big difference between that and CPI(M)'s pulling out of the 1977-1980 Janata Party government and 2009 Congress government. One, Jyoti Basu's consensus prime ministership would bring together a non-Congress, non-BJP third front, which under his stewardship, would help implement some pro-poor national plans especially massive land and water reform for the landless farmers and enslaved laborers. Two, even if his government would fall under pressure from fedual India, its "modern" capitalists and pressure from U.S.-backed global corporations (the way the Janata Party government fell in 1980), it would be a much more cohesive government implementing policies put together by a cohesive, left-of-center forces unlike the left-right tug-of-war Janata Party alliance. Thirdly, a Jyoti Basu national government would make the abstraction a reality that a moderate left, pro-people, progressive national government is indeed possible in feudal, colonial, caste- and class-ridden India.
By refusing to lead the national government at a critically opportune moment, CPI(M) leadership failed to take up on that challenge and exposed its ultimate weakness; nobody would ever believe that this group of people, unlike the right wing BJP and caste-based, corrupt parties, has courage and strength. I believe, Jyoti Basu’s and CPI(M)’s stars began falling then. Basu’s age, failing health and subsequent years of Left Front administration accelerated the downfall. Many Front leaders and workers became synonymous with dysfunction, some otherwise good persons of integrity lost touch with reality on the ground, made serious administrative and policy blunders (culminating in the West Bengal farming-land-giveaway deals with mega-rich corporations, causing huge uproar and bloodshed among the rural poor), and now in early 2010, it’s almost certain that soon, the three-decade-long Left Front regime is going to be replaced by a centrist Congress government put together by people whose own inefficiencies, lack of administrative and intellectual preparations, massive corruption and politics of muscle power are all too well known. Longtime activists like us shudder to foresee that the dark 1970’s days of police repression, anarchy and street violence are inching back in Kolkata (Calcutta) and West Bengal.
-Three-
Humility and Arrogance
Jyoti Basu donated his body -- organs, eyes, everything. It shows his benevolence, care for the needy, and also a scientific, modern, progressive living -- without superstitions or pseudo-religious taboos. It also symbolizes his ultimate sacrifice and dedication of his life for the people he's left behind.
I never knew Basu well; although as a political worker, first with the right and then with the left, I've attended some of his mass meetings when he was still strong just the way the Left Front government was strong. I found his speeches to be confident, simple, clear and easy to understand for the mass. I never heard him using communist jargons and cliches; nor have I heard him using convoluted-confounded reasoning only to prove that he was right. In fact, even when I was a "rising star" in the right-wing student movement, I was deeply impressed with the simplicity of his speeches. He spoke about peoples' lives and their problems; he clearly gave directions to resolve the problems with use of his administration and political philosophy.
In fact, I've had opportunities to hear Indian leaders from various shades of the spectrum. I've closely heard socialist Jay Prakash Narayan, RSS' Golwalkar and BJP's Vajpayee, then-Congress' "stepchild" "low-caste" mouthpiece Jagjivan Ram (who later quit Congress and joined the anti-Indira Gandhi alliance), and big-ticket Nehru-Gandhi royal family leaders. As a student of public speaking, I always thought both the left and right leaders' speeches were much closer to the ground than those of the centrists. Indira Gandhi's speeches were always full of fluff, rosy promises and little substance. It reminded me of the extremely long, boring speeches of Soviet Gorbachev or Brezhnev.
My father's lifelong involvement with RSS and BJP (former Jana Sangh) first made me an active worker in right politics. Later, however, when I came out of RSS and its various wings once and for all, I came to know a large number of left leaders and personalities, including my father-in-law and colleagues at a remote, rural college where I was a professor before emigrating to the U.S. At the same time, my maternal uncle Buddhadeb Bhattacharyya -- an Indira Congress "rising star" who was later mysteriously killed -- took me to a whole bunch of Congress leaders, and I had a privileged opportunity to see them closely too. In recent years, I've come to know CPI(M)'s stalwart Biman Basu who found time to meet with me on a number of occasions.
I must say, with some exceptions I've always found that there are two types of political personalities in India: humble and arrogant. Not that it's anything extraordinary given human nature: personalities come in various colors -- red, blue, green, white, gray and black. But for leaders both in the political arena and family circles, leaders' persona, knowledge, experience, foresight and action plans matter a lot; their ability to build and hold together coalitions of any kind makes or breaks. It influences not just the contemporary generation, but future generations to come. Breaking is easy; making is hard.
In spite of its dedication, tireless grassroots work, promises, action plans and a fertile ground to organize the mass, Indian Left has gradually failed to keep itself together; ideological strongheadedness and unwillingness to compromise broke itself up. Extreme arrogance and not taking full responsibility for failures caused its debacle if not demise. In late 1960's, CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(M-L) went their own violent ways; the enormous bloodshed and loss of thousands of young, promising, intelligent lives during the Naxalite era paved way for massive police repression and eventual destruction of a revolutionary movement. Naxalites' unrepentant association with the Chinese doctrine, politics of decapitation, and inexplicable opposition to the glorious-yet-bloodstained Bangladesh Liberation Struggle made it even more detached from Bengal for generations.
Similarly, after a decade of pro-people, ear-to-the-ground administration led by an energetic Jyoti Basu and his first cabinet members, Left Front and its countless big and small leaders -- urban, semi-urban and rural -- slowly started losing touch with reality, and arrogance rose its ugly head. Our Kolkata metaphor is that after a long, Congress era of chaos when there would be blanket power cuts, first there was light (Jyoti means light or electricity), and then there was no light over again. I'd like to add one contributing, critical element to that second round of power cut: short fuses of Left leaders.
The recent, forceful land-grabbing for industry-manufacturing that led to massive bloodshed of poor peasants and farm workers (who've been the backbone supporters of Left Front for thirty years) is an example of the short fuse. Not only that: unlike a pragmatic, humble generation of Jyoti Basu that talked less, worked more, found common grounds, and would not be embarrassed to admit mistakes, the new-generation personalities -- big or small, urban or rural -- with their arrogance and inability to work together either with the disenchanted mass or overlapping politics, brought both the Indian left movement and administrations they've run to the brink of disaster. Worse, the once-impossible-now-likely replacement forces are more than enough reasons to feel frozen and see nightmares.
Add to that the other historic blunder to deprive an entire Bengali generation of English education -- a blunder that Jyoti Basu perhaps didn't ever mention -- and we know that the disempowered mass is now even more impoverished, this time intellectually too. With the onslaught of pro-West, pro-rich, brainwashing media and an aggressive MTV-generation class that slanders any progressive lifestyles and any concepts of equality, the dispossessed, vulnerable class both in West Bengal and elsewhere in India is bound for gloom and doom. And hunger, despair, suicides, separatist violence and international terror – and more state repression India government-style – are bound to occur.
Jyoti Basu gave his body and soul to the people. But he is no more to stand by their side, to save them from destruction.
