A Grave Error
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The candidature of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee of the Congress for the post of President has split the Left Front with two parties - the CPI and RSP deciding to abstain in the Presidential vote, while the CPI(M) and the Forward Bloc decided to support him. Protesting the decision, the former Convenor of the Research Unit of the CPI(M) and long time Pragoti contributor, Prasenjit Bose has sent his resignation letter to his Party. The letter is published below.
Dear Comrades,
This is to express my shock and dismay over the decision taken by the Polit Bureau on 21st June to support the candidature of Congress’ and UPA’s nominee, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, for the Presidential elections.
Violation of Political Line
The CPI (M) has never viewed Presidential elections, and rightly so, as something that is ‘apolitical’ or ‘above party lines’. In 2002, a united Left candidate was put up against Mr. Kalam, who was backed both by the BJP-led NDA and the Congress, SP etc. The Congress candidate was supported by the Left parties in 2007 because the Left was supporting the UPA government from outside and the Congress accepted a Left nominee as the Vice-Presidential candidate. These were political decisions taken on the basis of the overall political stand of the CPI (M) and the Left vis-à-vis the Congress-led UPA and the BJP-led NDA.
As on earlier occasions, this time too, major political realignments are taking place around the Presidential elections. The political position of the CPI (M) should therefore have been guided by the overall political line adopted by the Party. The Political Resolution adopted in the 20th Party Congress held in April 2012 had clearly laid down the following Political Line:
2.137 The CPI (M) has to politically fight the Congress and the BJP. Both are parties which represent the big bourgeois landlord order which perpetuates class exploitation and is responsible for the social oppression of various sections of the people. They pursue neo-liberal policies and advocate a pro-US foreign policy. Defeating the Congress and the UPA government is imperative given the crushing burden of price rise, unemployment, suffering of the farmers and workers on the one hand and the brazen corruption and big sops to big business and the wealthy sections. Isolating the BJP and countering its communal and rightwing agenda is necessary and important for the advance of the Left, democratic and secular forces.
2.138 As against the Congress and the BJP, the CPI (M) puts forth the Left and democratic alternative. Only a Left and democratic platform can be the alternative to bourgeois-landlord rule. This alternative needs to be built up through a process of movements and struggles and the emergence of a political alliance of the Left and democratic forces. In the course of these efforts, it may be necessary to rally those non-Congress, non-BJP forces which can play a role in defence of democracy, national sovereignty, secularism, federalism and defence of the people’s livelihood and rights. The emergence of such joint platforms should help the process of building the alliance of the Left and democratic forces.
The Polit Bureau’s decision to extend support to the Congress’ nominee for the 2012 Presidential elections is a clear violation of the agreed line of politically fighting both the Congress and the BJP. The disruption of Left unity, following the Polit Bureau’s decision, also goes counter to the stated objective of strengthening Left unity and the alliance of Left and democratic forces. What was the pressing need to extend support to a Congress candidate even at the cost of breaking Left unity? Such brazen violation of the political line by the Party leadership within less than three months of the Party Congress is utterly bewildering. There is no explanation as to whether the political situation has changed since April, and if so how?
Mr. Mukherjee’s Record
The terse statement issued by the Polit Bureau justifying the decision states that “in the present situation” Mr. Mukherjee is the candidate who has the “widest acceptance”. This is a peculiar argument because the present acceptance of Mr. Mukherjee’s candidature cutting across party lines, from the ruling Congress and DMK, which are neck deep in corruption and venality, to the communal-chauvinistic Shiv Sena, has something very sinister about it. The “widest acceptance” of a candidate among such anti-people forces should be strong enough reason for the CPI (M) and the Left parties not to support that candidate.
Mr. Mukherjee has been a senior Cabinet Minister of the present and erstwhile UPA governments (2004-2012). In his earlier stints as Ministers of Defence and External Affairs, Mr. Mukherjee was instrumental in cementing the Indo-US strategic alliance through the Defence framework agreement and the nuclear deal, which the Left has always considered to be against India’s national interests. In his current tenure as Finance Minister, he has presided over the longest spell of double-digit food inflation in the post-independence period, breaking the back of our working people. His muddle-headed handling of inflation, by choking off demand through interest rate hikes on the one hand and fuelling cost-push inflation, through subsidy cuts leading to successive hikes in fuel and fertiliser prices, has precipitated stagflation in the Indian economy. The illogic of his policy framework can also be seen in the millions of tons of foodgrains presently rotting in the FCI godowns, even as poor women and children go hungry in the absence of cheap food, thanks to the fraudulent BPL criteria.
Mr. Mukherjee has vigorously pursued the neoliberal policies of disinvestment of profitable-PSUs and financial liberalization. This has led to a massive increase in speculative capital flowing in and out of the Indian economy, resulting in financial volatility and the rupee touching a historic low. His thorough mishandling of the economic situation has now led to a slowdown in industrial production, rising joblessness, a yawning current account deficit and record external indebtedness. He has also showered crores of rupees of unjustifiable tax concessions to Indian corporates and MNCs in the name of “stimulus”, thus worsening the fiscal situation and constraining development expenditure. He has shamelessly defended scam after scam perpetrated by the UPA government, from 2G spectrum to KG gas pricing, and stonewalled all attempts to retrieve black money stashed by Indians in offshore havens.
In sum, Mr. Mukherjee is not only a neoliberal advocate; he has been so since 1991 and he had signed the GATT agreement as Commerce Minister in 1994. But in his present tenure, he has also been one of the worst performing Finance Ministers India has ever had. There is no way one can tell him apart either from the other key Ministers of this discredited UPA government or its overall economic ideology. Each of his policy actions have been explicitly criticized and opposed by the CPI (M) and the Left alongside trade unions and other mass organizations. Millions of people have been mobilized to protest against these policies over the past three years.
Rather than providing a single argument in favour of supporting Mr. Mukherjee’s candidature other than mentioning his “wider acceptance”, the Polit Bureau statement makes an assertion that: “The CPI (M) will continue to oppose the UPA government and resolutely fight neo-liberal economic policies being pursued which are against the interests of the people.” Why has this assertion become necessary while endorsing the Finance Minister’s candidature? It is clear that the credibility of the CPI (M)’s opposition to neoliberal policies has been knocked out by the Polit Bureau’s decision to support a candidate with such a record. Arguing on the lines that ‘we are opposed to the economic policies of government but we have no problems in supporting its Finance Minister as a Presidential candidate’ is nothing but sheer hypocrisy and doublespeak.
Vacuous Arguments Expose Erroneous Stand
The argument presented in the Press Conference addressed by the General Secretary on 21st June 2012, justifying support for Mr. Mukherjee, was wholly misleading. It was said that the CPI (M) has always supported Congress nominees as Presidential candidates since 1991, despite being opposed to its economic policies (2002 was an exception since Mr. Kalam was NDA backed candidate). What was not mentioned was that never before has a sitting Finance Minister of a Congress government (or any Union Minister for that matter) been nominated as a Presidential candidate since 1991. Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma or Shri K.R. Narayanan were sitting Vice-Presidents, when they were nominated as Presidential candidates. Shrimati Pratibha Patil was a sitting Governor.
Moreover, Shri Shankar Dayal Sharma was supported as President in 1992 because the joint nominee of the VP Singh led Janata Dal and the Left parties, Shri K.R. Narayanan, was accepted by the Congress leadership as the Vice-Presidential candidate. Shri Narayanan later went on to become President in 1997 with 95% of the votes in the electoral college defeating T.N. Seshan, who was backed only by the Shiv Sena (a good example of “widest acceptance”). Shrimati Pratibha Patil was supported by the Left as the Presidential candidate alongside the Left nominee Shri Hamid Ansari being supported by the Congress as the Vice-Presidential candidate. These prior instances simply do not compare with the current situation.
The CPI (M) and the Left parties are not only in the opposition today, but their strength in the electoral college is also at its lowest since 1991. The Left is not in a position to decisively influence the Presidential election results. The only obvious ground for supporting a Congress candidate from the point of view of secularism – that the communal BJP backed candidate will win if the Left does not support Congress – clearly does not exist today. The NDA camp is in a state of disarray and the BJP has been forced to support a candidate initially proposed by the BJD and AIADMK. What does the CPI (M) gain by supporting a Congress Presidential nominee in this backdrop?
In the absence of any explicit and coherent explanation so far, one can only make two guesses. If the consideration was that the strength of the CPI (M) and the Left is numerically too weak to field its own candidate against both the Congress and BJP backed candidates, then the natural choice should have been to abstain from the polls. That is the stand adopted by the CPI and the RSP and it is an eminently reasonable, transparent and principled position. While the electoral outcome would have remained unchanged anyway, the Left as a whole could have sent a clear message: that the Left is unitedly opposed to both the Congress and BJP backed candidates in the present political backdrop. For the CPI (M), this would have been in keeping with the political mandate of the 20th Congress.
Equating abstention with political irrelevance is logically fallacious, because relevance in the electoral college comes from the number of MPs and MLAs, which in turn comes from public support in general elections. In other words, the relevance of the CPI (M) or the Left parties is not really contingent upon whether the Left votes for this or that candidate. The issue is how to leverage the existent strength to convey the correct political message. And it is here that the CPI (M)’s stand of supporting the Congress candidate fails miserably, because neither is it based on any ostensible principle (secularism, progressive socio-economic policy platform, anti-imperialism etc.) nor any immediate political gain.
The other argument floating in the corporate media is that the CPI (M) and the Left is going to gain by supporting the Congress nominee because the Trinamul Congress (TMC) supremo is opposed to the former and this will help to “drive a wedge” between the Congress and the TMC in West Bengal to the Left’s advantage. Some overenthusiastic commentators have also opined that the prospects of the Congress nominee becoming the first Bengali President of India will inflict a heavy political cost on his opponents in West Bengal and pay rich dividends to his supporters. Such arguments, besides taking the political consciousness of the ordinary people of Bengal entirely for granted, are also reflective of naiveté and lack of common sense.
Repeated instances, from the 2010 KMC and other municipality polls to the 2012 municipality polls have shown that the TMC has been able to defeat the Left Front in most places even without Congress support. The theory of Congress cutting into TMC’s vote share by contesting independently is invalid in a majority of constituencies because the electoral polarization takes place between the Left and anti-Left forces, with the latter consolidating behind the TMC. Whenever Congress has contested independently (except for a handful of pockets), the TMC has gained at the expense of the Congress, marginalizing the latter. Moreover, any effort to stitch up a formal or informal electoral alliance with the Congress against the TMC in West Bengal today will be a tactical disaster for the Left Front, because that will turn large sections of traditional voters away from the Left. Such erosion of support has already happened after the Nandigram/Singur episodes and will further aggravate if the Left Front is seen to be making unprincipled deals with the Congress which is perceived by a large majority of the working people of Bengal as anti-people, corrupt and opportunistic. The Left’s cozying up to the Congress before the Lok Sabha elections will hand over the anti-Centre plank to the TMC on a platter and help in consolidating Mamata Banerjee's reactionary autocracy in Bengal.
As for MLAs and MPs from Bengal being obligated to support a Bengali for the Presidential post because of ‘public sentiment’, this sounds eerily similar to Shiv Sena or Amra Bangali kind of politics. Historically, the working people of Bengal have been wise enough to see through such gimmickries and ask what politics the Bengali in question stands for? That is why Mr. Mukherjee could win his first election from West Bengal only in 2004 though being in active politics since the late 1960s.
Despite the laments of the bourgeois commentators, the fact remains that the West Bengal electorate continued to deliver handsome victories for the CPI (M) and the Left Front in election after election, even after Jyoti Basu was not made the Prime Minister in 1996. They started defeating the Left Front only from 2008 onwards (there were 3 Loksabha and 2 Assembly elections between 1996 and 2008 which the Left Front won convincingly), following Nandigram/Singur, which triggered the outburst of the accumulated discontent over the failings of the LF government and the myriad deviations of the Party. The short point is that class politics, land and livelihood issues and social justice remain central to the electorate in West Bengal, majority of whom are workers, small peasants and agricultural workers and a big section belonging to dalit, adivasi or Muslim backgrounds. Cheap parochialism and regional chauvinism remains to be a concern of the politically bankrupt and intellectually challenged.
The lack of any clear public reasoning by the Party leadership to explain its decision and widespread reports in the mainstream media have created the impression that the Party leadership was divided on regional/linguistic lines on this issue. This has considerably denigrated the image of the CPI (M) as an all-India Party with an emancipatory world view.
Why Resignation?
I protest against the decision by the Polit Bureau to support the candidature of Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, the Congress nominee for the Presidential elections. I consider this to be a grave error which will harm the Party and disturb Left unity. The Party leadership has committed one mistake after another since 2007 - coercive land acquisition in West Bengal, the Nandigram police firing, allowing the UPA government to approach the IAEA with the nuclear deal, giving a call for a non-Congress secular government in 2009 - and then accepted them in a cavalier manner in Party conferences without fixing proper responsibility and conducting rectification thereon. The same leadership is committing yet another costly mistake, refusing to learn anything from the past. Party members are aghast and exasperated that their concerns are falling on deaf ears. Therefore, with great pain and agony, I tender my resignation from the primary membership of the Party.
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Comments
In my opinion, anybody at any
In my opinion, anybody at any time is free to walk out of any political party for whatever reason he thinks and one is also free to justify this step to himself in any way he likes.
What I cannot agree with is venting the grievances in a forum closely connected with the party he is leaving in such a public manner. It clearly shows he is trying to get back at the party he once belonged to and trying to harm it in some manner. This I think is not in good judgement, since the party cannot be said to have harmed the individual in any way. Of course one always thinks that one knows better and understands better than all his peers, but if someone is mature enough one also knows that there is no final word on anything. It would have only inreased my respect for the person if he had left in silence and waited for his chance to do some good for whatever cause he believes in.
Ever stopped to wonder why
Ever stopped to wonder why this forum - run by so many CPIM members, well-wishers and sympathisers - agreed to post that letter of Prasenjit's? Is it not because they too symathised with his position?
Read Pragoti's editorial police - there are painstaking ways in which decisions are taken collectively. Clearly the entire Pragoti team were agreed that Prasenjit's letter deserved to reach well-wishers of the Left everywhere.
By posting the letter in public, Prasenjit has let thousands of party members know that they are not alone in having deep doubts about the party's line. He has defended a Left position admirably - while the party instead is offering absurdities to back its indefensible decision.
It is sad to hear of
It is sad to hear of com.Prasenjith resignation. I think it is hasty and premature. The accumulated problems in the party that were, according to com. Prasenjith, reason for his resignation can not be done away with on one fine day. The process of rectifying mistakes I think involves a long drawn out struggle. Identifying these problems and resolving to rectify them is only the beginning. Rectifying wrong trends and practices that have accumulated over a long period of time would require intense inner party struggle at every level that may take longer time than one would like. If one thinks such sustained struggle is a waste of time, what is the alternative? Can you start a new, viable communist party of the same size, reach and cadre base. Which one would take longer? Rectification through inner party struggle or building new reovolutionary party.
If neither is an alternative, what will you be, when you are not part of a communist party? Have you given up the fight for a better future and just society. If you have not, is that fight better carried out individually than being part of an organization working along with your comrades?
Com. Prasenjith despite his potential and talent as communist worker, balked at the prospect of what may have been for him a bitter inner party struggle. People like me who have admired him as a student leader are disappointed at this. To what extent a party member is willing to undertake inner party struggle is his personal choice. If he does not want to undertake such stress and strain, may be resignation is the only way.
Despite the acrimonious way all this has come about, I hope he would still associate with CPIM in future, even as a non member
Prosenjit's resignation
some has scoffed the attempt of Prosenjit's move. A communist line is a process, and it is not binding that one should be a perfect communist from the beginning- the realization is important, even if it is late it is welcome! Prosenjit might have some past in JNU, what is important is to react at the critical points. At this crisis point of Left movement Prosenjit has rightly pointed out [may not be a pioneer though! big deal!] that the question of hobnobbing with the bourgeois and the pro-imperialist sections is the discerning point. Should the Left be redefined as a confederation of parties, groups and individuals who would CONSISTENTLY fight against any bourgeois tiptoeing and for people's democratic rights. Prosenjit is welcome as long as he sticks to the stand of independent left assertion!
grave error
I am surprised that Oratorio has not yet posted Com Prakash Karats article on the Presidential election. Maybe Pragoti has decided to 're-invent' itself in order to be in step with fashionable and often empty terminology.
Edit Team's reply...
Comrade Subhashini Ali, Comrade Prakash Karat's views on the presidential elections have been uploaded on Pragoti after the due editorial process. Pragoti remains committed to its endeavour to develop an online space for those who stand for a Left and democratic alternative in India which in our opinion is a task that cannot be built on empty and fashionable terminology and we beg to differ with you on this. Pragoti has carried a wide variety of articles and posts including those reflecting debates and dissent within the Left movement in the past and will continue to do so in keeping with its editorial policy and practice.
Pragoti editorial team
I suspect some current-day
I suspect some current-day intelletuals, not unlike some of their more famous counterparts in last century Europe (such as Trotsky), are prone to making strategies sitting in their theoretical ivory towers. And they are very eager to call their opponents all sorts of name like Stalinist, neo-liberals, empricists and what not. It is extremely easy to theoritize from an absolutist position (either right or left) and win points in a debate. But the ground reality may be completely different and real-life political leaders (like Buddha) must deal with them.
As somebody called Gorvachev
As somebody called Gorvachev had done in not so long past, is now being done by the person known as Budhadeb. All the best with your real politicking. He is capable enough to do what Gorvachev did in USSR.
Why Resignation
Right decision, perfect timing ... flimsy grounds (or should I say lame excuse? that's still alright, everybody needs one). We understand. We are all are with you.
With all respect to Prasenda,
With all respect to Prasenda, I wonder what is he going to do now? Or, what it goes from here? Is this a stalemate? The CPI(M) has not turned bankrupt and lost its credibility over night; the process has been long. It has indeed happened before Prasenda's eyes, and he can not shake the responsibility away for the dismal condition the party is today. Now suddenly, an open resignation letter is circulated on 'Pragoti', and comrade wants to quit the party he has defended for so long. Conscience suddenly woke up?
Points raised by Prasenda is honest and valid. There is no doubt that support should be given to Pranab. For the other points raised regarding the mistakes of the party at Singur, nuclear bill etc...., Why now? Why not four years ago when it mattered the most?
Leadership capabilities of Comrade Prasenjit Bose are beyond doubt, and someone like me has always looked forward to a leader like him in these hopeless times. His resignation, and subsequent expulsion had been a very sad event not only within the party, but also outside the party. He is a genuine leader, and should never think that there is no support behind him.
Pragoti has been a space to
Reply from Pragoti Editorial Team
We appreciate your concern about Pragoti. No individual is responsible for upload of any articles on Pragoti. Pragoti is collectively responsible for all articles it carries.
concentrate on the issue: don't make issue out of non-issue
please try not make non-issue like 'indiscipline', 'hurried', 'express mode', 'resignation letter is published' and deviate us (me being one of the avid reader of pragoti) from the pertinent political issues of CPIM committing grave errors like to support Pranab - a symbol of neo-liberalism, delay in withdrawing support to UPA-1, police firing in bengal etc. as raised by Prasenjit himself. Please be conscientious enough (from working class revolutionary party perspective) to see through this political gimmickry of revisionists in the party to beat every cadre into supporting ongoing rightist deviations in the party of which support to pranab is just one of the manifestation. As made clear by the editorial team the decision was collectively taken so please stop finding another punching bag just because you are not able to defend the wrong politics of CPIM in front of the people. Instead fight against rightist and revisionist deviations (as as Prabhat would call it empiricisation) in the party as you claim to support 'to reinvent and strengthen left politics in a creative manner'. By bring in technical question of hours (5 or how many) it took to upload the articles how can you make it unprincipled. When the issues are political why are we bringing in question of technical glitches. If at all you want to shed tears (crocodile or genuine - i hope genuine) please shed it on where communist principles are being violated when party politburo (and certain right encroachments in it) is going against the resolutions of the party congress. please don't let your energy get dissipated in fruitless debates essentially to deviate us from real questions raised by people in Nandigram, West bengal and all across India (and not only in delhi) which party is increasingly unable to answer due to rightist deviations in the party. Even general secretary seems to have been hegemonized into submission by constant threat of non-attendance in crucial meetings and even regular public defiance of basic communist principles by certain people in the party. please be with the left movement and left principles.
Fair decision
Prasenjit Bose's resignation is going to be only fruitful if his party thinks hard about the reasons for it. If it only looks at it as some individual's opinion or a subjective opinion, it will not help the CPM at all. For the sake of the Left movement one hopes that wise counsel prevails.
On Pranab Mukherjee
Even if one is not a leftist, one will agree that Pranab Mukherjee's candidature is completely problematic. How can anyone from a honest and non-corrupt background accept his candidature?
I hope the supporters of Pranab Mukherjee introspect over this.
welcome in right way
red salute to you com-red.lastly you have to resign from cpi(m) it is very difficult for a member who enjoying the party power as reside with top leader,but better late than never.are you think that cpm is a revolutionary communist party?any time?was Joti Basu a communist leader?a sfi member come to know the mother party after long time.few sfi leader study it deeply & when he raised the question,he must be neglected by upper leader.how you went to the top ?with out compromise nobody can go to the upper committees of sfi or cpim.there is no political debate fairly in the party.all leaders of all level committee are interested for personal political carrier or social carrier.who think deeply for working people or for revolution?once i also a leader of sfi in some university.not able to compromise with upper leader.so i have to disconnect at early stage.i expect that a large numbers of leader must come out from party at the time of sez,singur,nandigram,lalgar.but the common people & civil society come out ----not a single leader comes out.why-why-why?the power & opportunity! they can not believe that cpim goes down in election!now the chance of come back & the party properties arrest them till now!here you prasenjit basu is a exceptional.i hope you must en cares others to do same.i hope that i must meet you very soon.
welcome in right way
better late than never.how we meet in a common platform?i have also a bitter experience as ex sfi leader.i am waiting for you