Prabhat Patnaik’s Letter
Reports regarding a letter written by Prof. Prabhat Patnaik are floating in the Kerala media. The letter is in response to a widely circulated email, which was sent by KT Rammohan, objecting to an invitation extended to Prof. Patnaik to speak at the Chintha Ravi Memorial Seminar in Kozhikode, on the grounds that he belongs to the “killer-party”. Below we reproduce KT Rammohan’s publicly circulated email and Prabhat Patnaik’s response. Update: A Malayalam translation is also provided below, as it seems that a wrong translation has been circulating elsewhere in the web.
KT Rammohan’s email:
…Prabhat, as I know, is one of the finest human beings in Indian academia, a brilliant economist, and well-worth a speaker in the proposed Ravi-meet. No qualms, we all agreed. But then there was history. I am sure that Prabhat is not a person who would justify the present killing. And now to have Prabhat (and that too to a place not far from Onchiyam), so closely identified as an intellectual of the killer-party, a government official during its earlier regime in power, would imply legitimising the murderous-party.
May be, it tvm were the venue, even now, I would not have expressed similar reservations in having prabhat. At Kozhikode, this would be the 52nd stab.
Please rethink! Prabhat could still be invited but if the theme could be changed to something like corporatism and social fascism in Malabar.
…please feel free to forward this mail to all, including Prabhat.
Best regards,
Ram
…………………………………………..
Prabhat Patnaik’s Response
Dear Ram,
I appreciate the point made by you in your mail, and wish to say the following in that connection.
I have been with the Party for 37 years, having joined it at the start of the Emergency. My father had been a freedom-fighter and an early Communist (he was a founder of the Communist Party in Orissa in 1936). Having seen in my childhood the enormous sacrifices the Communists made, and the dedication to the cause of the working people that they had, it had always been my ambition to join the Party which was finally realized in 1975. For this very reason however the developments in Kerala over the last several days have been a source of great pain and anguish for me. The problems they pose for me are not just moral but also existential.
I see Communism in India today as being threatened in two ways: either being hegemonised by bourgeois liberalism, or as falling prey to a feudal-Stalinism. What is common to both these trends is an implicit lack of conviction about socialism, an implicit subscription to the neo-liberal “development” agenda, and an implicit denial of scope for people’s empowerment. Succumbing to either or both these threats would be disastrous and totally against the interests of the people. If socialism is to be brought back on the agenda, then an alternative de-Stalinized Marxism has to be practiced. I was looking forward to the Chintha Ravi Memorial seminar as an occasion to discuss these issues, and hence to critique the feudal-Stalinist trend that one encounters in Kerala, and also elsewhere. I saw the seminar as such an occasion because I knew that it would be attended by intellectuals seriously interested in Marxism. I do not often get an opportunity to interact with such a group.
One final point. The official position occupied by me in Kerala under the last government was not out of any Party mandate but at the personal request of Com. V.S. Achuthanandan. Most of my friends, including in the Party, advised me against it, but I took it up nonetheless, and have never regretted that decision.
With regards,
Prabhat Patnaik
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Thanks to Pragoti for
Thanks to Pragoti for carrying the letter in its entirety as well as providing an accurate Malayalam translation. Some of us have posted a response to this letter here: http://beta.bodhicommons.org/article/an-open-letter-to-prabhat-patnaik-f...
pragoti should also publish
pragoti should also publish this open letter to prabhat patnaik. debate should continue.
I second it.
I second it.
Debate should certainly continue.
Debate should certainly continue. Instead of asking Prabhat to provide examples, if we really want to get instances of feudal –Stalinism we may need to do in depth- in house study of the functioning or organizing ways in some areas like garbetta or keshpur (this is not to reach any conclusion about anybody which should be left to proper process of law and jurisprudence) in west Bengal at its extreme form as it is alleged to be; the purported hegemony of this way of functioning or organizing on other parts of Bengal that even state leaders who are neither feudal nor Stalinist have to give atleast mute acceptance to it as it is alleged to be. It would be also interesting to know how feudal elements rear their heads in form of Stalinism or anything else even in places where some basic restructuring in form of land reforms etc. have already taken place.
The respondents can only be people involved or sympathetic to the party (for that is what the subject of discussion here is) but definitely there has to be a surprise and scientific element about the whole study to get a genuine response and analysis. The report may only be presented to concerned people in the party at every level if it is strongly felt that this could just become a tool in the hands of imperialist agents for their ever ready false generalization and propaganda against communists. But it should be ensured that report becomes a basis for acknowledging truth, knowing causes behind it, taking real appropriate action and also for genuine rectification wherever needed. This report could also at the same time expose the bankrupt and terror politics of opponent parties in those places but this should not become an excuse to not do a genuine scientific study on this, in a little surprising way, to know …
study empiricization or bourgeois liberalism as well
yes debate and study can also should also happen vis-a-vis Prabhat'S idea of empiricization or bourgeois liberalism that we feel is also rearing their heads time and again... doubt everything...
Debate?? Well yes, a debate
Debate?? Well yes, a debate should happen on why CPI(M) killed Comrade TPC. This 'response' to TPC is basically voicing the Pinarayi Vijayan ('official' Kerala CPI(M)) line. What is most laughable in the response is the accusation against VS that he is 'reformist' for his response on allegations of torture in the TPC murder case.
M M Mani openly claimed that CPI(M) has killed its opponents. CPI(M) cannot get away by saying that they have removed him away from his official party post - the question is, if those murders were not CPI(M)'s doings, then WHY DID MANI CLAIM responsibility?? Will CPI(M) and Pragoti care to explain?
TPC, Tapasi Malik, Rajkumar Bhul, the farmers in Nandigram, Comrade Halim .....all victims of state repression and CPI(M)'s violence. Please note: this list only includes who can never be called 'class enemies' by a long shot....CPI(M) tried desperately to 'explain' Singur and Nandigram and failed badly. They are now trying the same game in the TPC murder case, and the people united, will give them the same answer!!!!!
On Stalin and a far-fetched extrapolation of “Stalinism”
1. What Comrade Stalin did and did not, could be a matter of a long debate, even if one attempts to analyze the persona and the politics of Joseph Stalin within the framework of Marxism-Leninism, let alone from the perspectives of bourgeois liberalism. The CPI(M) had, in 1978, summed up its ‘evaluation’ of Joseph Stalin as a part of its discussions during the Salkia Plenum. Any ‘official’ change in the said stand till date is not known to me. Several declassified documents since 1997 and in subsequent years from the erstwhile Soviet archives do however show Comrade Stalin in a much different light than what has been claimed by the popular media since the “secret” speech of Krushchev. That inter alia includes the commitment of Stalin to a participatory democracy based on universal adult suffrage (including the erstwhile Kulaks, White Guardists and such other elements who were once expelled from the Soviet state). In fact, a commission was appointed by the Central Committee of the All Union Communist Party at the behest of Comrade Stalin. It’s a different story of the resistance that his plans had faced.
2. The opposition of Prof. Patnaik to the policies and actions of Comrade Stalin is quite well known in the political circles, however, that is certainly not the opinion strict sensu of the Party.
3. The murder of TPC is still under investigation and several logical questions do arise as to the way it is being sought to be pasted on the CPI(M). The entire matter has an uncanny resemblance to the Hemant Basu murder during the emergency period in Bengal. There too the individuals who were initially arrested and framed by the S.S. Ray administration were CPI(M) cadres. Later, it turned out to be Congress backed lumpen elements from the Naxal fold (the “Congsaal” category) who were the perpetrators of the heinous crime.
4. It was never the CPI(M) who had mooted the (in)famous “Keshpur Line”. It was not the Congress/TMC workers who were butchered during the period 1998-2000 in the vast stretch of land from West Midnapore upto Khanakul-Goghat belt in Hugli district. The official tally of such murdered comrades during the said period was more than a hundred. Also, during the said period no complaint was made by even Ms. Bannerjee about the murder of any of her party worker. Indeed, not for nothing that she so gleefully termed that phase as “the second freedom movement in Midnapore”. Subsequently the people regrouped and offered a united mass resistance. Not for nothing that post-2001, the same Didi aborted her rhetoric of “second freedom movement” and started crying for “peace”. If one finds ill with such resistance, then let he/she be reminded that when injustice is the order of the day, resistance is the duty.
5. Whatever has been stated by Shri Mani from Idukki is his personal comment. He might as well be taken in custody by the UDF government and questioned about the alleged “killings”. To my knowledge, that has not been done so far. Is the UDF not that sensitive about the ‘killing’ of anybody other than TPC?!
stalinism vs. gandhism
((Tapasi Malik, Rajkumar Bhul, the farmers in Nandigram))
Now a simple answer, i mostly see famous celebrated name to attack cpim. Hundreds of CPIM worker murdered by tmc-mao under the seize in Medinapore , are those not farmers? dont you find farmer among them or are they class enemy ? It always amuse me when all are using it just like some brand name but under these brand names 500 comrades ruthlessly murdered and never raised in debate just because they were comrades with no name ?
when anyone try to resist you are accusing stalinism but on the pretext of stalinism , hundreds of cpim people murdered in those places under complete control of TMC in medinapore you call that Gandhism !!!! just like someone everyday accusing stalinism is sitting in the CM chair above nearly murder of 500 comrades in just 2 year and she claimed she only following Gandhism.
((Comrade TPC ))
Now who is behind this is debatable and under investigation but everyone in a hurry to pass verdict. Other part is TPC is your comrade so the SFI leader who murdered by political opponent for just implementing a hartal is not your comrade because no name is there in your debate , here no prompt investigation shown by anyone, no vigorous debate may be no media bombarded news. TPC blood is blood ? tumhara khoon khoon mera khun pani.
Ranjan
i should have thought that
i should have thought that CPI(M0 would at least have learnt not to defend Singur and Nandigram, looks like I am wrong. Anyway, the point is that the culture of violence and political killings of opponents in both west bengal and kerala has been actively aided and abetted by the CPI(M). No one is trying to support TMC, or the UDF, we know their reactionary character well enough. however, when the so-called "left" kills farmers, peasants and any dissenting left voice, surely it is a matter of concern, since this is no ordinary murder??
One is really questioning CPI(M)'s understanding of class and class enemies when people like TPC, tapasi and Halim and Rajkumar Bhul are killed. What exactly was their crime??
Facts are sometime different
Thought , interpretation and facts sometime under the cloud of political belief. Where have i defend both Singur & Nandigram policy and police action? Now a simple fact under the siege of an unholy nexus of so called Maoist-TMC in Nandigram hundreds of people murdered and many driven from their house , you know many called that LIBERATION , but when people who ousted from their house try to return to their house that called CAPTURE by the same lot of people and when people try to resist they called ATROCITIES. So facts are sometime different from interpretation.
Ranjan Sahu
A Subjective View
Com Prabhat Patnaik has every right to hold his own views on the state of affairs in his very own party and share it with friends and foes . His recent public criticism of some perceived negative trends within the party is no secret But one can not but note with regret that by openly airing his subjective view on a certain alleged negative trends in his own party especially in the Kerala state unit , the influential party intellectual has objectively played into the hands of certain anti - CPI(M) elements in Kerala who are baying for the party's blood following the despicable murder of T P Chandrasekharan.
TPC was a powerful local leader of the break away Revolutionary Marxist party (RMP) that had initially struck roots in a few panchayats in and around Onchiyam in Kozhikode district. The initial reasons for the split were purely personal and local. Bloody clashes between the supporters of the CPI(M) and the RMP was a regular feature of the area , a legendary stronghold of the party , ever since the RMP was born. A sort of under reported ' turf war' was on there . Historical factors , local specifics , factionalism in the state party unit , failure of leadership on both sides have all culminated in the ongoing tragedy.
The CPI(M) has openly condemned the heinous crime and also promised that any party member found involved in the murder will have no place in the party. Again , Com Prabhat has every right not to take the party's stand at face value . But he should have atleast known that he could not be the only party well wisher agonized by the disturbing thought that some members of the party could well be involved in the crime in someway but all of them may not see the crime as the tipping point to review one's political and organizational commitment to the CPI(M) or to do anything that might amplify the anti - party chorus by sections including some individuals in the Chintha Ravi Foundation who have been long time public critics of the party representing various alien political tendencies.
Again ,for a Marxist intellectual of Com Prabhat's eminence it would be the worst kind of empiricism to see the murder of TPC as symptomic of a wholesale '' feudal- Stalinist ' degeneration of the party , a pet theme of the party's opponents . The point is not just that ' feudal - Stalinism' does not hold as a theoritical construct. It would be a total misreading of the situation even if Com Prabhat had in mind a certain pre modern , bureaucratic political cultural legacy( partyism as opposed to party consciousness) imbibed and practiced by the CPI(M) cadres whether in Kerala or West Bengal , whether under EMS or Promode Das Gupta or Com Pinarayi Vijayan or Com Bimen Bose ,Com Buddhadev Bhattacharya or Com V S Achuthanadan, now or in the past.
Perhaps , he is mistaking the trees for the wood in a weak moment of blurred vision. After all , how can one forget that it was Com Prabhat who only the other day was staunchly defending his party against concerted attacks from bleeding heart liberals by proudly pointing out with such intellectual rigor that the CPI(M) , warts and all, was the only modern political formation in our country . I am referring to his inspiring piece titled " What is right with with the CPI(M)".
Fraternally
N. Madhavan Kutty
Consulting Editor
Desabhimani
Trivandrum