[Reader-list] Fwd: Signals from Vijayawada and Lalgarh – and Challenges before Revolutionary Communists

[A. Mani]

On Sat, Aug 14, 2010 at 11:26 AM, Venugopalan K M <kmvenuannur at gmail.com> wrote:
> *Signals from Vijayawada and Lalgarh –*
> *and Challenges before Revolutionary Communists*
>
> - Dipankar Bhattacharya
>
> The much-hyped ‘rectification
> campaign’ was quietly forgotten and the revived ‘anti-Congressism’ on the
> national level was carefully calibrated by Prakash Karat himself with his
> remark ‘never say never’ regarding a possible future alliance with the
> Congress. And of course, weaning the Congress away from the TMC remains the
> ultimate tactical dream of the comrades in both Alimuddin Street as well as
> AKG Bhavan.

The author has got many of his facts wrong and the article is full of
unreasoned opinions. That is what the party reports suggest. The
rectification program has been in operation for a long while and
anyway that is not to be part of public knowledge.  It was not part of
the main agenda of the meeting. No alliance with the congress has ever
happened or will. I think such possibilities are idle speculation.

>
>
> The Vijayawada session adopted a special resolution on West Bengal and
> Kerala which seeks to once again describe the CPI(M)-led governments in
> these two states as products of history and decades of struggles. The
> resolution would like to appropriate every development in these states –
> from increased rice production to reduced infant mortality – as a CPI(M)
> achievement, and demand popular sympathy as a besieged and beleaguered
> victim at the receiving end of a grand conspiracy of the ruling classes.
> Imperialism, the Indian big bourgeoisie, foreign-funded NGOs, the corporate
> media, the Maoists and the ‘so-called intelligentsia’ are apparently all
> colluding to oust the CPI(M) from power because of the CPI(M)’s opposition
> to neo-liberal policies.
>
>
>
> What the resolution does not do is to explain the paradox as to why and how
> most of these conspirators who were all praise for the CPI(M) model in West
> Bengal till the other day suddenly turned against it. The DFID, ADB and
> World Bank have been closely involved in both West Bengal and Kerala; Ratan
> Tata’s press conference with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the full-page
> newspaper advertisement praising the dynamism of CPI(M)-ruled West Bengal

No the right-wing media has never been in praise of the Left model in WB.
Some of the investors might have helped.


> And the CPI(M) is completely dishonest about what has triggered the
> anti-Left offensive – what has enabled the ruling classes to go on the
> offensive is not the CPI(M)’s professed opposition to neo-liberalism, but
> its readiness to embrace it even at the risk of alienating and antagonising
> the peasantry and the working people.
>

This is simply wrong. This has been discussed many times before. The
Left was forced to follow a substantial part of the imposed
neo-liberalism of the Central Govt. It may have been been a tactical
mistake to use this to woo middle-class voters, but the actual problem
has been - Given the Central Govt policies, define a feasible
anti-neo-liberal model of development for State Govts.  Nobody has
been able to define a 'reasonable Leftist way' of doing this
(especially in last decade).  It has always been admitted.

The strategy has always been to 'resist the onslaught of neo-liberal policies'

Otherwise most of the article is direction-less and wanting on basic
comprehension.


Best

A. Mani





-- 
A. Mani
ASL, CLC,  AMS, CMS
http://www.logicamani.co.cc