Mass politics of Communism is on decline in India. Though political parties swearing by communism could never come to power at the centre on their own, they did play important roles in government formations at centre and in various states from time to time. Various Communist parties in the name of Left-Front are now in government in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura out of which they are expected to lose West Bengal and Kerala in the next assembly elections. There was a time when in most of the Indian states Communist parties had formidable presence with considerable mass base capabilities to sway results of the elections in the manner they preferred to choose. Those days are gone. They have been completely wiped out from the states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Karnataka. Even in West Bengal and Kerala, imminent defeat in elections stares in their face. Left - Front government's anti people policies and oppressive-violent measures against masses in Singur and Nandigram have robbed them of their pro-poor mantle that they alwayas posed to put on. Amid such sorry state of affairs for Marxism in India, Jyoti Basu has passed away.
Jyoti Basu (8 July 1914 - 17 January 2010), the longest ruling chief ministers (1977-2000) in India had retired from active politics much earlier, so in a sense his era had already ended. He was only occasionally seen publicly for last few years. As a reluctant Polit Bureau member from 2006 to 2008, he was currently a special invitee to the highest decision making body of the CPM. Basu who came in touch with the Communist Party of Great Britain while studying Law in England was influenced by RP Dutta. Later, he returned to join Communist Party of India and was elected to the Polit Bureau of CPM when it split from CPI in 1964. As chief minister of West Bengal he is remembered for large scale land reforms and institution of panchayati raj system which gave the poor peasants and small farmers a say in running the panchayati institutions. But he is also criticized for economic stagnation and industrial decline of West Bengal.
The challenge before communism was whether it could adjust to the Indian reality or it can refashion the Indian situation to suit their own. Jyoti Basu was among those communist leaders who were less known for their staunch adherence to ideology and more for developing a well oiled machinery that could come to power in a democracy and retain it as well. Many columnists have described him a politician belonging to the genre of Bengali bhadralok who preferred to be gentleman than a communist. How far such claims are true is open to scrutiny but it may be said that CPI, in the later phase, i.e. when its experiments in early post-independence phase started failing miserably and it suffered divisions, communism in India started swearing to tactical moves more while showing less commitment to ideology. At best it tried to present itself as an alternative to Congress and aligned with the anti-Congress forces. People also saw it as an alternative to Congress but its penchant to bail out Congress in the time of crisis eroded its credibility. It also led to its losing ground to other forces like socialists and BJP opposed to Congress in various states. The communists could rarely voice out their orthodox Marxist positions like establishing dictatorship of proleteriate hoping to gain power through ballot. In fact, it appears that leaders like Jyoti Basu were more inclined to present an alternative to the people as they could not possibly gel themselves with Congress culture and ideology. Marxism of communist leaders like Jyoti Basu may be said to be more related to dissent to Congress ideology, culture and its politics and an attempt to give an alternative to the masses.
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Koenraad Elst
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