PRAGOTI

 In the recent period, alongwith a number of critical discussions on the electoral set-back suffered by the CPI (M) and the Left in last Lok Sabha elections, there have been some questions raised about the practice of democratic centralism as the organizational principle of the Communist Party. Such critiques have come from persons who are intellectuals associated with the Left or the CPI (M). 

The quest for human freedom requires a transcendence of capitalism. What is important, however, is the overall vision that we have of the socialism that will emerge, one which accords centrality to human freedom, which remains continuously “open” and untainted by ossification in any form, and which constitutes an unleashing of democracy and a perennial engagement of the people with politics.

The article, originally published in the Economic and Political Weekly is attached along with this post. 

Is the practice and principle of "Democratic Centralism" to organise a communist party, relevant anymore to today's times? What does the practice entail? Is it necessary to modify the principle and practice? Or as some claim, to do away with it? Or indeed to persist with it? 

Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) answers critiques of the principle, written as part of various articles on broad issues by eminent thinkers - Javeed Alam, Prabir Purkayastha and Prabhat Patnaik. All the articles are posted here. 

“Sen, a Nobel Prize winner in Economics and a Lamont Professor of Economics and Moral Philosophy at Harvard University took an intelligent and pragmatic approach by pondering over the idea of ‘enhancement of justice’ by ‘removal of injustice’ instead of imagining an a priori perfect just society, or ‘identifying perfectly just social arrangements’ or ‘just institutions’ in his book. However, the book has several deficiencies, and in this article, we would try to point out those ontological, methodological and epistemological limits/problems of Sen’s idea of justice.”