PRAGOTI

When the USSR existed, there was always a section within the Left who abused it relentlessly. The Trots derided "Stalinism" while the Maoists denounced the "social imperialism" of the USSR, to the extent that they started downplaying the imperialist threat. The fact is that after the collapse of the USSR, all shades of the Left, including the Trots and Maoists got weakened and pushed into oblivion and imperialism led by US established absolute dominance. Aniket seems to be a victim of the same syndrome in the current context. He finds Russia and China to be imperialist powers whose assertions vis-a-vis the US needs to be slighted. Does he celebrate the supine submission of the Indian Government before the Americans as something which needs to be celebrated? And if he is talking about a socialist alternative to imperialism, socialism will not drop from the heaven one fine morning. It will be born out of the conflicts and contradictions of the current phase of imperialism, particularly through the weakening of American hegemony.