[Reader-list] `Stranded Between Government and Opposition: The Politics of the CPI(M) Since 1989’

[Rajesh Ramakrishnan]

*Tuesday, 15th July, 2008*

You are invited to a talk on:

* *

*`Stranded Between Government and Opposition: The Politics of the CPI(M)
Since 1989'*



By *Sanjay Ruparelia***

at *3 PM* in the *Seminar Hall, CSDS, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi – 110 054*



Since 1989, the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has sought to
define its national politics through two principal objectives: to limit the
advance of Hindu nationalist forces and to halt the deepening of neo-liberal
economic reform.  For these reasons, the CPI(M) has provided external
parliamentary support to anti-BJP coalitions in 1989, 1996 and 2004, without
joining government.  It has also sought to block the advance of liberal
economic reform at the Centre while pursuing it in the states where it
governs, particularly West Bengal.



This paper investigates the origins, dynamics and consequences of these
seeming contradictions.  It examines three causal factors in particular: the
logic of political self-reproduction in India's federal parliamentary
democracy; the narrowing of economic policy options in India's federal
market economy; and the conceptions of power, political responsibility and
political possibility that inform the strategies and tactics of the party.**



Sanjay Ruparelia, Visiting Fellow at CSDS, is Assistant Professor of
Political Science at the New School for Social Research.  Dr. Ruparelia
received his PhD in politics from the Faculty of Social and Political
Sciences, University of Cambridge. His present research analyses the
relationship between economic liberalisation, militant Hindu nationalism and
the rise of lower-caste, communist and regional parties. He is writing a
book manuscript, provisionally entitled, "Divided We Govern: Federal
Coalition Politics in India", which analyses the importance of institutions,
power and judgment in explaining the politics of the 'third force' since
1989.  He is also co-editing a multidisciplinary volume of essays, "A Great
Transformation? Understanding India's New Political Economy", which examines
the preceding general themes.  His previous research on federal coalition
politics has been published in *Comparative Politics* and *Economic and
Political Weekly*.