Defend the Party, Left in West Bengal

By Prakash Karat

THE brutal violence against the CPI(M) and the Left Front in West Bengal is continuing after the Lok Sabha elections. For about fifteen days after the polling ended on May 12, there have been widespread attacks targeting the CPI(M) workers and Left Front supporters in various districts. A report of such attacks is published in this issue of People’s Democracy. In the post-poll violence, so far three CPI(M) workers have been killed, more than a thousand Left Front supporters were injured in the attacks, and several hundreds have been forced to leave their villages and homes by the violence unleashed by the TMC goons.

These are not some sporadic clashes or acts of violence in the aftermath of the elections. These are planned and targeted attacks on the grassroots level party cadres and supporters who stood firmly for the Left Front, worked in the elections and mobilised people to support and vote for Left Front candidates. Even ordinary people who identified and voted for the CPI(M) or the Left Front were targeted in this terror campaign.

What is being witnessed is the planned and diabolic attempt by the Trinamool Congress to eliminate the CPI(M) as an organisation and to suppress the Left Front by repression and violence. In this effort, the police and the administration are being utilised to play a partisan role. Thousands of false cases have been foisted on those attacked while the attackers go free.

This pattern of attacks began in some areas after the panchayat elections in 2008. It assumed statewide proportions after the Lok Sabha elections in 2009. Between then and the assembly elections in May 2011, 388 men and women were killed by the TMC gangs. After an election, the TMC identifies the areas where the CPI(M) and the Left Front has retained mass support and their cadres have worked among the people. They are targeted for further attacks to eliminate the organisation. By this they aim to suppress the organised movement of the workers, peasants and the working people.

In the weeks following the May 2011 assembly elections, 30 Left Front leaders and workers were killed, of these 28 were from the CPI(M) and two from the RSP. Further, 23 women were raped and 508 molested; 3,785 persons were injured and had to be hospitalised; 40,000 people had to leave their homes. The drive to eliminate the CPI(M) and the Left Front saw 758 offices of the party, trade unions and mass organisations captured.

The pattern was repeated after the panchayat elections in July 2013 --- 24 CPI(M) cadres and supporters were killed between June 3 and July 25. In the present bout of violence directed against the CPI(M) and the Left Front after the Lok Sabha elections, the pattern is the same. Party offices are being attacked, damaged and destroyed. Those who dared to stand up to the TMC threats and worked for the Left Front candidates are being punished with physical attacks and even murdered.

Among the three who have died in this round of violence, a 65-year old woman, Bela Dey, got serious injuries trying to protect her two sons who had worked as CPI(M) volunteers in the elections in Nadia district. She later died. Another CPI(M) worker, Kajal Mallick, was beaten to death in Manteswar of Burdwan district. The third killing was of Ashmira Begum. She was a former CPI(M) elected panchayat member who had courageously defied the TMC threats and mobilised people to vote in a village in Ketugram in Burdwan district. She was stabbed to death when the TMC goons attacked her house. With these three deaths, the number of cadres and supporters who were killed since the Assembly elections in May 2011 has reached 157.

Thousands of cadres and supporters like Ashimira Begum had campaigned for the CPI(M) and the Left Front courageously defying the threats and intimidation of the TMC goons. It is these valiant comrades who are being subjected to attack and their means of livelihood being destroyed. Another type of attack is on the livelihood of CPI(M) and Left activists. In some places, they are prevented from going to work in the unorganised sector. In many places, the peasants and agricultural workers are forcibly stopped from working in the fields. In other instances, their shops and establishments have been looted or damaged.

What is being experienced in West Bengal is not only a wholesale attack on democracy but a concerted fascistic attempt to suppress the CPI(M) and the Left Front by systematic violence and terror. The brunt of this violence is borne by the working people who have stood with the party and the Red Flag – the rural poor, agricultural workers, adivasis and women.

The paramount task today is to defend the party and protect its cadres and supporters. The state and central leadership have to urgently take steps in this direction. It is essential to mobilise the people and build resistance against these attacks on democracy. This is not a battle of the CPI(M) and the Left in West Bengal but of the entire party and the Left movement of the country. All the democratic forces in the country must be rallied to express solidarity and support for the struggle against these fascistic attacks.

People’s Democracy, June 01, 2014

West Bengal Verdict "Distorted": Karat

Friday, May 16, 2014

http://cpim.org/content/west-bengal-verdict-distorted

CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat termed the results of the Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal as “distorted”. Addressing the press in New Delhi today, he said that there was widespread rigging and violence during the last three phases of the elections in the state and the entire democratic process was vitiated. “The results do not reflect the strength and support of the people for the Left Front in West Bengal”.

Prakash Karat said that in 32 out of 42 constituencies in the state, there was widespread rigging and violence and these have been widely reported in the Bengali media. But the Election Commission has failed in its duty of ensuring a free and fair poll. “The Left, the Congress and the BJP together had demanded repoll in 3200 booths where rigging was done, but the EC had ordered repoll only in 16 booths. There is something wrong with the election machinery.” He said that during the 2004 and 2009 Lok Sabha elections the Party had raised the issue about the role of observers who are sent to the constituencies. Prakash Karat pointed out that “there is something defective as there are no clear guidelines about how these observers should act”.

Answering a question about the fall in percentage of votes polled by the Party in Bengal, Prakash said that “the percentage of votes does not reflect the correct picture as there was widespread rigging.” He termed the drop of over 11 per cent vote since the last assembly elections as “unacceptable”. This does not reflect the true situation, he said.

Our immediate concern will be taking our Party and the movement ahead in West Bengal, irrespective of the election results, he added.

About the outcome of the elections at the national level, Prakash said though the Party had worked for the rejection of the Congress, it is not happy with the outcome, as the main benefit of the anti-Congress mood has gone to the BJP. 

LEFT FRONT RALLY AT BRIGADE PARADE GROUND ON 9TH FEBRUARY, 2014

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India’s Communist Rally for 2014: A Primer for the Indian Elections

by VIJAY PRASHAD

FEBRUARY 10, 2014

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In March, 788 million Indians will be eligible to cast their ballots in the general election. For the 15^h Lok Sabha (Parliament) elections in 2009, about half the eligible voters went to the polls, which means that almost four hundred million people might vote for the 543 parliamentary seats this year. They will be able to vote for one of two major alliances or the regional and Left parties who form the third pole in the Indian polity.

India’s Three Blocs.

The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) is led by the Congress Party, founded in 1885. The UPA has been in power since 2004. It is a center-right alliance, oscillating between a firm commitment to neo-liberal economic policy and a mild form of social welfare. Neo-liberalism’s agenda includes privatization, which means that the government has been the auctioneer of important state assets – it was in this role that the UPA mired itself in a quicksand of corruption scandals. Garroted by the Gandhi family (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), the Congress as the leading force in the UPA has tried to emphasize its social welfare schemes to no avail. Its leader, Rahul Gandhi, is personable but vacuous.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), founded in 1980, leads the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA). It is a right-wing alliance that is driven entirely by the politics of the BJP, itself the political arm of India’s fascist sector. Aware that its genuine politics of hatred for anyone who is not an upper caste Hindu will not work in India’s diverse soil, the BJP has attempted to put itself forward as incorruptible and the better party to preach the gospel of the free market. Its standard-bearer, Narendra Modi, carries with him a bilious record as chief minister of Gujarat. He says that Gujarat is a model for development, which is of course correct if “Gujarat” simply refers to its capitalist class; others have not fared well at all. Modi is also aware that his own background – as the cheerleader for the 1999 anti-Christian pogrom in Dangs and the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom across the state – is a liability; he would prefer to talk about higher education and jobs, although every once in a while the smile drops and the viciousness is evident. An explosive article in Caravan by Leena Gita Reghunath implicates Modi in the career of Swami Aseemananda, the mastermind of the 2006-08 bomb blasts in India. Modi’s supporters are deaf to this record, to their own peril.

The third bloc comprises the regional parties and the Left Front. To win a majority in the parliament one of the blocs must win 272 seats. In the last election, the Congress alone got 203 seats and the BJP won 117 seats. It is very unlikely for either of these parties to get the 272 seats by themselves. They must draw in the regional parties into their alliances. Each season the regional parties play hard to get, jockeying for the greatest spoils before they commit to one or the other bloc. These regional parties typically have little problem with neo-liberal policy but they are not as keen on the BJP’s fascism. It is what has saved the lackadaisical Congress. This year, a group of regional parties will once more try to form a Third Front, which will be backed by the Left Front. Three parties from northern India have formed an alliance, as the Left Front ties up with one party from southern India. Everything is in flux. A new regional party – the Aam Aadmi Party – made a spectacular electoral gain in Delhi. It is an anti-corruption populist force that wishes to enter the parliamentary elections in other states. It is not clear how they will do.

Left Front Rally, February 9, Kolkata, Debasish Chakraborty.

The Left Front.

If there is to be a Third Front, its backbone will be the Left Front. The Left in India can be found in struggles across the country – from the fight against Khap Panchayats in Haryana to the anti-caste fight for temple entry in Tamil Nadu (for a good introduction, see Elisabeth Armstrong’s Gender and Neoliberalism: The All India Democratic Women’s Association and Globalization Politics, 2013). But electorally, the Left Front makes an impact in only three states – Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal. In the last election, in 2009, the Left Front suffered a decisive defeat, winning only 25 seats (down from 58). The reasons for this defeat are complex. In West Bengal, they were clearest. The Left had governed here since 1977, and had over the thirty-four years picked up the habits of power despite periodic attempts at “rectification.” Two major setbacks occurred for the Left over its industrial and land acquisition policy. An attempt to set up an auto factory in Singur backfired when the Left failed to build the consent of all those whose land needed to be procured. The disaster of Singur was built upon by the entire opposition in rural Nandigram. Claiming that there was a land acquisition notice, an alliance of the armed Maoists and the current ruling Trinamul Congress Party (TMC) seized the area and barricaded it against state officials. The police entered Nandigram, killing 14 people in the bargain. At that time, the Left Front was blamed for the police firing. A Central Bureau of Investigation report now shows that the government was not implicated in the shooting. Nonetheless, Singur and Nandigram sunk the Left in the elections.

Once in power in West Bengal from 2011, the TMC ruled with an iron hand. Between May 2011 and mid-January 2014, its people killed 139 cadres of the Left Front’s main constituent, the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Most recently, on February 6, eight TMC men in Howrah kidnapped and raped two women (ages 27 and 43) for being members of the CPI-M. “You have to join the Trinamul,” they apparently told the women. “We have been telling you to do so for some time, but you have been ignoring us.” One of the women recalled that they were told not to go to the February 9 mass rally called by the Left Front in Kolkata. The TMC’s leader, Mamata Banerjee, has been tone deaf to this incident, and to the epidemic of violence against women in the state. There has been a 60 per cent increase in rape in the state since 2011, when the TMC took power (according to the National Crime Records Bureau). This is twice the jump in national statistics.

Despite the intimidation of the TMC, over a million women and men gathered in Kolkata’s Brigade Ground on February 9 for an enormous show of strength of the Left Front. This has been the largest rally of the election season. Former Chief Minister, Buddhadev Bhattacharya, said that this has been the biggest rally he has ever seen. Party members of the four constituent parties of the Left Front joined sympathizers – they stood side by side with those who were simply fed up with the TMC. Reports of violent attacks against those who came to the rally began to come in as soon as the rally ended.

A Policy Alternative.

The Left expects to do better in West Bengal than it did in the parliamentary elections of 2009 and the state elections in 2011. If the Left Front is able to win more than the 15 (out of 42) parliamentary seats that it won in 2009, it will be able to leverage those numbers toward a progressive Third Front. Or at least hold the balance in a fractured parliament.

The Left has indicated that it is not interested simply in an alternative front in Parliament. The point is to push for a shift in the policy trajectory. In an editorial for People’s Democracy, the CPI-M leadership elaborated on this distinction,

“The Indian people, if they want to change the situation for the better, will have to use this opportunity provided by the general elections to bring about a political alternative that is capable of implementing alternative policies. An alternative policy trajectory that ensures universal rights and not entitlements to food security; free health care; universal free education; right to employment or adequate unemployment allowance; and universal schemes for the care of the elderly and differently abled, at least, must form the core of such an alternative. This trajectory is preferable not only in humanitarian terms but makes eminent economic sense as well. By thus empowering the people, their purchasing power will substantially increase generating the much-needed additional aggregate domestic demand which, in turn, will provide the impetus for manufacturing growth and, hence, employment. This would set in chain a motion of sustainable and more equitable growth trajectory. That there are resources to sustain such a strategy is obvious if the humongous corruption scams are prevented and the massive tax concessions to the rich are instead used for public investments to build our much-needed infrastructure generating substantial new employment. What the country needs is a political alternative that can put in place such an alternative policy trajectory.”

There is little expectation that the current political calculus can produce such a clear policy shift, but if the Left were able to increase its electoral strength it would be able to push as hard as possible in this direction. Anything less than this would be ruinous for the Indian people.

Vijay Prashad’s latest book is The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2013).

A Primer for the Indian Elections » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

‘Being an opportunist party, the Trinamul can align with anyone’: CPI(M) general-secretary Prakash Karat

Created 14 Apr 2013 - 00:00, The Asian Age Interview of the Week

What do you have to say about the recent outburst of political violence in West Bengal?

There has been sustained violence against the CPI(M) and the Left Front in West Bengal ever since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The Trinamul Congress is responsible for the attacks on the CPI(M) and Left cadres and supporters in an effort to suppress strong Left base in the state.

This attack intensified after the Assembly elections in May 2011. Since the Trinamul Congress government came to power, 96 cadres and supporters of the CPI(M) and the Left have been killed. The recent incident at a demonstration outside the Planning Commission office has been used to unleash another bout of organised attack on the offices and leaders of the Left Front.

What do you have to say about the attack by the SFI and CPI(M) activists on West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the state finance minister Amit Mitra outside the Planning Commission? Do you condemn it? Do you think it is a good precedence?

There was no attack against the chief minister. There was a protest organised against the attitude of the state government regarding the custodial death of SFI leader Sudipto Gupta. Unfortunately, in the course of that demonstration, there was an incident involving Mr Mitra. We have condemned it. On earlier occasions, too, there have been such acts against various political leaders and ministers and we have always disapproved and condemned them.

Ms Banerjee has said that majority of those who got killed in West Bengal were Trinamul functionaries?

She is used to making such wild charges. Even on this occasion, she has said that there was an attempt to kill her. This is totally baseless.

What do you think about the way the West Bengal government is handling the murder case of SFI leader Sudipto Gupta?

A 23-year-old student died in police custody. Ms Banerjee declared that it is a petty matter. Why is the West Bengal government not ordering a judicial enquiry into the incident? Whether death happened due to killing or accident, let the truth come out.

West Bengal has a history of political violence. The Left dominated the state for more than three decades. There is a perception that the Left spearheaded violence and that it is responsible for creating a culture of political violence in the state?

This is a hackneyed charge against the Left. The political violence in West Bengal has been primarily an effort of the state machinery and the ruling classes and landlords, who unleashed violence against the Communist and the Left movements in the 1950s and 60s to suppress them. Even when the Left Front government was in office, violence was directed against the working class and peasant movements. The fact is that such violence existed before the Left Front government assumed office and is there even after the Left Front government ceased to be in office. The Trinamul Congress represents a reactionary force which is out to suppress democratic rights and give the Opposition no quarter.

What is your stand on the situation in Kerala, where one of your party leaders M.M. Mani had publicly claimed the party’s involvement in political murders? Even though you had said that an internal enquiry into the murder of T.P. Chandrasekharan was in the process, nothing has come out yet. Have you given clean chit to your partymen in this case?

As far as the speech by M.M. Mani is concerned, our party took action against him. The judiciary gave its verdict in all those cases. However, the UDF government in Kerala has reopened the cases and filed chargesheet against Mani, which is totally unwarranted. In the Chandrasekharan murder case, our party conducted an enquiry, but the matter is in the court. We are confident that the party’s leaders in Kozhikode district who are implicated in this case will be found innocent.

What do you think about Ms Banerjee’s stalemate with the state Election Commission over panchayat polls? Do you think the Trinamul Congress is deliberately delaying the elections?

We want the panchayat elections to be held on time. The state government is wilfully disregarding the recommendations of the state Election Commission about the manner in which the panchayat polls are to be conducted. The Trinamul wants to ride roughshod and hold elections in a manner in which the Opposition parties are not able to participate in a free and fair poll. That is why it is opposing the sensible proposals of the Election Commission.

Do you see any possibility of Ms Banerjee striking an alliance with the Congress ahead of or after the general elections?

Being an opportunist party, the Trinamul Congress can go with anyone. It should not be forgotten that the Trinamul was part of the BJP-led alliance government where Ms Banerjee was a minister. She has alternated between alliances with the BJP and the Congress. The only constant position she has is against the CPI(M) and the Left.

Do you see any possibility of your party striking an alliance with the UPA?

Our party has already decided to oppose both the Congress and the BJP. We, as the Left, will take a united stand. We would like a non-Congress secular government in office.

Why is the Left not taking a lead this time to form a Third Front?

Our efforts are to create an alternative based on alternative policies. This can come about only through movements and struggles jointly by parties and organisations who are committed to an alternative set of policies. The third front is more commonly associated with an electoral alliance. As far as the general elections are concerned, our party along with the Left will fight elections together and may have some understanding with some of the regional parties at states level.

How do you look at Narendra Modi emerging as a prime ministerial candidate?

If the BJP decides to project Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate, it will be a clear message that it is going ahead with its hardcore Hindutva agenda. It is becoming evident that big businesses are backing Mr Modi. This form of Hindutva and big business support is a form of insipient fascism. That is the meaning of the Gujarat model of development, where the Muslims have been beaten down to the status of second-class citizens.

Towards a Seventh Left Front Govt in Tripura

By Prakash Karat

THE Left Front in Tripura held a central rally in Agartala on January 20 to launch its election campaign. The state assembly elections are on February 14. I participated in this rally which saw one lakh people attending, a huge number, considering that the total population of the state is only 37 lakhs.

Tripura is in the north-eastern part of the country. It is surrounded on three sides by Bangladesh. It was here in the nineteen forties that the Communist party worked among the tribal people and organised them to fight against the Maharaja and his feudal rule. Nripen Chakraborty, Dasarath Deb and Biren Datta were the pioneers of the Communist movement. The first two later served as the chief ministers of the state.

Tripura has had a Left Front government since 1978. In the first two terms of the Left Front government, there were two major achievements: the implementation of land reforms and the setting up of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council under the sixth schedule of the constitution. There was a break only in 1988-93 when there was a Congress regime. The Congress came to power through a rigged election with the help of the central government headed by Rajiv Gandhi. This was one of the most sordid episodes in Indian politics.The five year period saw semi-fascist terror unleashed against the CPI(M) and hundreds of the Party members and supporters were killed. It was after an arduous struggle that the Congress was isolated and the Left Front regained office in March 1993.

Since then, in the three subsequent elections in 1998, 2003 and 2008, the Left Front won with a two-thirds majority. All in all, the Left Front has been in government for six terms since 1978, except for the one term in 1988-93.

The history of the Left Front government in the last two decades is a remarkable and inspiring one. In the first decade, in the nineties, the state was still affected by the violent insurgency by armed extremist tribal groups. Their attacks had begun in the early eighties. Sheltering in camps across the border in Bangladesh, these groups wreaked havoc in the tribal and hill areas. They were financed and equipped by imperialist agencies and the ISI of Pakistan. They demanded an independent Tripura. Thousands were killed in the three decades of terrorist violence and hundreds of CPI (M) tribal cadres and supporters laid down their lives defending the unity of the people and the country.

The Left Front governments could tackle this armed insurgency by adopting a three pronged approach. First, the political one, of preserving the unity of the tribal and Bengali communities which was sought to be disrupted. Second, by raising and equipping a state armed police (Tripura State Rifles) which could effectively counter the armed gangs. Third, the government stepped up its development and welfare activities once the violence was curbed in the tribal areas.  The Tripura Tribal Autonomous District Council was revitalised for this purpose.

Today Tripura is a peaceful state and there is harmony and unity between the majority Bengalis and the minority tribal people. Tripura stands out in the entire north-east for achieving this, whereas there is ethnic and tribal strife in other states like Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The CPI(M) and the Left’s role is the key factor in Tripura.

The record of the Left Front government under the leadership of Manik Sarkar is also outstanding in the developmental and welfare activities. It is acknowledged by all that Tripura is the best governed state in the north-east. In the 2001 census, Tripura was in terms of the literacy rate the 11th among all states; in the 2011 census,Tripura had reached the 4th position with 88 per cent literacy. There were no farmers suicides and no starvation deaths in the last ten years.

Tripura has an excellent record in the delivery of various schemes. Tripura stood first in the country in 2011 by generating 86 average man days under the rural employment guarantee scheme (MNREGA). Tripura has also done justice to the tribal people by being in the forefront in implementing the Forest Rights Act. By mid 2012, 1,19,342 pattas had been distributed to forest dwellers securing their land. There are 16 pension schemes that cover almost all BPL families.

As far as infrastructure is concerned, 90 per cent of the total of 8,312 habitations are electrified. 90 percentage of irrigable land has been brought under irrigation facilities and 50 per cent of the total cultivable land is now irrigated.

The biggest step taken by the current Left Front government was the introduction of 35 kgs rice at Rs 2 per kilo for all BPL card holders which is 2 lakh families. In the north-eastern states, rice is supplied at Rs 5 to 6 per kilo due to the higher transportation costs. It was so in Tripura too till August 2012. The supply of rice at Rs 2 has been welcomed by all sections of the people. The Tripura government is bearing the cost of the increased subsidy.

The Left Front was the first to announce its list of candidates for the 60 assembly seats, 20 of which are reserved for scheduled tribes. The CPI(M) is contesting 55, the CPI-2, the RSP-2 and the Forward Bloc-1.

The Congress party finalised its list of candidates among squabbles and open rifts. It has maintained its alliance with the tribal organisation, the INPT which is the body which incorporated the TUJS and some other tribal groups. The Congress traditionally had no base among the tribal people. It therefore allied first with the TUJS and later the INPT.

These tribal organisations have had separatist platforms at various points of time. The Congress had the dubious record of encouraging the tribal separatist and extremist forces just to isolate and weaken the CPI(M)’s strong base among the tribal people.

Today, these tactics stand discredited before the people. The Left Front stands for unity, peace, progress and development – a platform which is attracting the youth in large numbers.

At the rally on January 20, wave after wave of people, marched into the ground raising the slogan “We will bring the Seventh Left Front Government”. This is a pledge which will be in all certainty fulfilled on February 14. 

People's Democracy,January 27, 2013

TMC trying to undermine Left Front's success: Prakash Karat

PTI / Thursday, January 19, 2012 19:26 IST

KOLKATA: CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has alleged that the Trinamool Congress-led government in West Bengal is bent on undermining the success achieved by the Left Front in land reforms and in the three-tier panchayat system.

"West Bengal carved out a niche for itself in the Panchayeti Raj and land reforms initiated in 1978 and it was the role model in the entire country, which is sought to be be undermined by the present Trinamool Congress government," Karat said in an interview to CPI(M) daily 'Ganashakti'.

Karat said that the Trinamool Congress would not be successful and would face "stiff resistance" if there was any move by it to undermine the LF's success in land reforms and in the panchayat raj system.

Claiming that West Bengal was adjudged 'best' among states in the implementation of land reforms and panchayati raj system, Karat said, "This was considered a role model for all other states and it was an acknowledged fact".

"If the Trinamool Congress government dares to spoil all our efforts aimed at benefitting farmers and villagers, there will be a mass resistance," the CPI(M) general secretary said.

Commenting on the 'attack' on the CPI(M) and other Left parties ever since the Trinamool Congress came to power, Karat said, "This government's oppressive and suppressive nature has been exposed to the people."

"During the Left front rule, no democratic movement came under attack from the police which has been common in both Congress and BJP-ruled states. This is a new phenomenon in West Bengal. But people will come forward and resist any oppressive acts of the government," he said.

The CPI(M) general secretary said that the Left Front had captured power in the state in 1977 through democratic movements 'which was maintained all through its 34-year rule'.

About the Left parties' prospects in five states going to Assembly polls, Karat said, "The Left force will try to improve its position."

The Historic Legacy of the Left Front Government

By Prakash Karat

When the Left Front government headed by Comrade Jyoti Basu was sworn into office on June 21, 1977, no one had expected or known that history would be made by this government. If any one had predicted that the Left Front would continue to rule for more than 30 years, there would have been none to believe such a claim. Yet, this is what the Left Front government accomplished. It lasted for 34 years without a break. This, in itself, is a unique record.

The Left Front won the elections in 1977 after a prolonged period of struggles and repression of the Left. The 1972 Assembly elections were falsified and rigged by the Congress with the help of the police and the administration. Between 1971 and 1977, a reign of semi-fascist terror prevailed during which 1,400 members and supporters of the CPI (M) and the Left were killed. The country as a whole came under Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government during which democratic rights were suppressed.

The repression on the CPI (M) and the Left was unleashed because of the militant struggles of the peasantry for land and the rising tide of movements of the working people. The CPI (M) and the Left Front won a big victory as the people swept away the hated Congress regime and voted wholeheartedly for the Left Front’s programme and policies.

This wave in favour of the Left Front still does not account for the longevity of the Left Front government for more than three decades. The Left Front won seven successive elections getting on each occasion two-thirds of the seats in the Assembly. This is a remarkable record of popular support and endorsement. Under the Left Front government, land reforms were implemented which benefited millions of peasants and bargadars; for the first time, panchayats were made into popular institutions with the participation of those who belong to the dispossessed rural classes; the rights of the working class and the working people were assured.

All these gave a new dignity and confidence to the working people. Left Front rule also began the fight back against the economic backwardness which had been imposed on West Bengal and Eastern India – a legacy of both colonial rule and the uneven nature of capitalist development in independent India. The Left Front showed in practice what secularism means in essence and spirit. West Bengal became a bastion of communal harmony. All these were achieved despite the serious limitations of running a state government within a system controlled by the big bourgeoisie and the landlords. Despite the fact that a state government has limited powers and State power rests with the Central government, the Left Front government had major achievements in the spheres like agriculture which is a state subject.

Further, the Left Front government was always under threat from the domestic and external reactionary forces. The Purulia arms drop of 1996 illustrates to what extent they could go to undermine the Left Front government. The Left Front government faced the hostility of successive governments at the Centre with a few exceptions. It survived and continued only because of the unstinted support to the people of West Bengal and the democratic consciousness which grew in the rest of the country which would not have tolerated any attempt to topple the Left Front government undemocratically.

After the defeat in the May 2011 Assembly elections, a concerted effort is being made to negate the achievements of the Left Front government in the past three decades. The electoral defeat is being interpreted as the people’s rejection of all that has been accomplished by the Left Front government. This is a motivated attack by the ideological and political opponents of the Left. It is necessary for them to paint the Left Front rule in dark colours if they are to try and reverse the gains made by the people. After the euphoria of the victory of the TMC led combine, efforts will be made to undo the gains of land reforms. The old dominant classes will try to reassert. With the Congress-TMC coalition at the Centre following neo-liberal policies, in West Bengal, behind the cloak of populism, efforts will be made to push through measures which will affect the livelihood of the people and erode their rights.

The present wave of violence unleashed against the CPI (M) and the Left Front in order to weaken it is a prelude to what can be expected to follow. The class forces which represent the TMC combine are making a systematic effort to kill, maim, intimidate and destroy the organisational framework that is the basis for the toiling people of West Bengal to struggle and assert their rights.

The gains made by the working people – the peasants, the bargadars, the agricultural workers, the working class and the lower middle classes – under Left Front rule have to be defended. It will not be easy for the ruling classes to rollback the land reforms and other gains as the past experience of Kerala shows. The struggles of the working class and other sections of the working people to defend their rights and livelihood, for democratic rights and to fight back the anti-people neo-liberal policies will constitute the next chapter in the history of the Left Front in West Bengal.

While organising the working people, advancing the class struggle and defending democracy, the historic legacy of the Left Front governments will always be a bulwark of support. Those who have written off the Left Front and declared its obituary will be proved wrong.

GANASHAKTI

21st June, 2011

Election Results: A Long & Arduous Struggle Ahead

By Prakash Karat


THE elections to the West Bengal assembly have resulted in a big defeat for the Left Front. This has come as a major disappointment for the left, democratic and progressive forces in the country who consider West Bengal as a bastion of the Left. After 34 years of Left Front government and the remarkable record of winning seven successive elections since 1977, the CPI(M) led Left Front government has been voted out of office. Some general features of the verdict stand out. The people have decisively opted for change and given a sweeping victory to the TMC combine. There was a total consolidation of all the anti-Left forces ranging from the right to the Maoists on the extreme left. It is also evident that the Left Front could not recover the lost ground in the past two years as much as we expected.

CRITICAL REVIEW

The Party will undertake a comprehensive review of the results to identify the causes which have led to the erosion of support for the Left Front and the political shift that has taken place. Even though the Left Front has garnered an additional eleven lakh votes compared to the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, there is a reduction of 2.2 percentage points in the vote share compared to the Lok Sabha polls. Despite the solid achievements of the three decades of Left rule, the prolonged period in government led to the accumulation of some negative factors. The critical examination of the election trends placing it in the context of the political and organisational work of the Party should help us to chalk out the steps to be taken to rectify the flaws in our approach and remedy the organisational shortcomings.

In Kerala, the LDF lost narrowly falling short by three seats for a majority. The UDF managed to scrape through with a two seat majority. The difference between the UDF and LDF vote share is only 0.89 per cent. This shows that the people were by and large satisfied with the record of the LDF government and there was no anti-incumbency factor at work. The anti-corruption crusade of chief minister V S Achuthanandan also got popular endorsement. Preliminary reports show that a LDF victory was thwarted by the influence wielded by some caste and religious bodies over some sections of the people. A large number of people were not attracted to the Congress alliance given the record of corruption and price-rise under the UPA government at the centre.

MOTIVATED ATTACKS

The defeat in West Bengal has led to a barrage of propaganda in the corporate media against the CPI(M) and the Left. The results are being portrayed as a catastrophe from which the CPI(M) will not be able to recover. Another line of attack pursued by some commentators is to pronounce the ideology of the Communist Party as an anachronism and the verdict as a culmination of the end of the relevance of socialism and Marxism worldwide.

That these are patently false assertions can be understood by the fact that the fall of the Soviet Union had no material impact on the CPI(M). In fact, in the nineteen nineties, the Party grew and developed stronger, both in West Bengal and Kerala. As far as ideology is concerned, the CPI(M) draws on the theory and practice of Marxism by creatively applying it to Indian conditions. This is not a static position but one which evolves constantly.

The CPI(M) and the Left Front in West Bengal have grown and developed through innumerable struggles and popular movements stretching over four decades. The electoral success of the Left Front is an outcome of the mass base produced by such movements and struggles. The Left Front is not merely an electoral alliance nor has the CPI(M) grown and developed as a powerful mass party only due to its electoral activities.

Those who are writing the epitaph of the CPI(M) and the Left Front in West Bengal overlook the fact that even in this defeat the Left Front has polled forty one per cent of the votes. Over one crore ninety five lakh (19.5 million) people have voted and supported the Left Front. This is a substantial mass base which has withstood the attacks on the CPI(M) and the Left in the last two years and who constitute the class base of the working people. The virulent anti-communist and neo-liberal commentators will be proved wrong. The CPI(M) and the Left forces will conduct a patient struggle to win back those sections of the people who have been alienated by taking up their cause and fighting for them.

Another form of attack is to slander the entire record of the Left Front and to demonise the CPI(M) as an authoritarian force which has suppressed the people. Some have gone to the extent of claiming that the earlier victories of the Left Front are due to the repression of anyone who opposed or defied the CPI(M). These critics conveniently forget that in every assembly election since 1977, the anti-Left opposition has got not less than forty per cent of the vote at any time. The CPI(M) and the Left Front had a remarkable record of winning between forty five to fifty per cent of the vote in all previous elections owing to their deep roots among the people and the popular support that they commanded particularly in the rural areas. The vilification of the CPI(M) cadres painting them as despotic and corrupt is a motivated effort to disarm the Party, as it is its dedicated and selfless cadres who are the backbone of the organisation.

An accompanying charge is that the Left Front government in West Bengal was inherently anti-democratic and a totalitarian set up which had stamped out all dissent and imposed a straitjacket on West Bengal society. The Left Front ruled through popular mandate by continuously subjecting itself to the democratic process under the parliamentary democratic system. The CPI(M) and the Left have shown that it is the most consistent force for democracy. Ever since the Communist Party won the elections in 1957 in Kerala and formed the first communist ministry in the country, it has vitalised democracy by bringing the vast masses into the democratic process. It is not accidental that the highest polling rates in the country are registered in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. It is in these three states that land reforms have broken the old landlord structure and expanded democracy. The panchayati institutions were vitalised. It is the agents of the dominant classes and vested interests who seek to tarnish and distort this democratic record of the Left.

ROLE OF LEFT-LED GOVERNMENTS

The CPI(M) had evolved its own approach to the running of state governments wherever it is able to get the support of the people. The Left-led governments have to be run in such a way as to strengthen the Left and democratic movement and the movement of the working people. The Party programme has spelt out that such governments should carry out a programme of providing relief to the people and to strive, project and implement alternative policies within the existing limitations. The unique record of the Left Front government in West Bengal shows that it had seriously worked towards this goal. The loss of such a Left-led government is a setback but it cannot be seen as a permanent and fundamental loss. The CPI(M) has always stressed the importance or organising the working people through their own class and mass organisations and developing popular movements and struggles and thereby raising the political consciousness of the people. The formation of the Left-led governments is an outcome of this process.

The CPI(M) will, after the critical examination of the election results, orient itself towards taking up the issues of the basic classes and fighting for the interests of the working people. The political platform of the Left which includes the fight against the neo-liberal economic policies, defending the livelihood of the people, defence of national sovereignty and secularism remains as the only alternative political platform for the country as against those of the ruling class parties like the Congress and the BJP.

In West Bengal, in the changed political situation, the CPI(M) will defend the gains achieved by the people over the last three decades under the Left Front rule. Given the class nature of the ruling alliance, there will be efforts to undo the land reforms and undermine the gains achieved by the working people. We will defend the land reforms and the rights of the bargadars and agricultural workers; the workers will be better organised to fight for their rights and all sections of the working people in defence of their livelihood. The legacy of secularism and communal harmony has to be protected and the divisive forces out to disrupt the unity of the people and integrity of the state countered. All this will be accomplished by strengthening the Left unity.

DEFEND PARTY & LEFT FRONT

In the aftermath of the elections, the immediate task is to defend the Party, the Left Front and the movement in West Bengal which has already come under attack. Soon after the election results, there have been scores of attacks on offices of the Party and trade unions. Murderous violence has been unleashed against the cadres and supporters of the CPI(M) and the Left Front. Within the first two days, two leaders of the CPI(M) were brutally killed. The Trinamul Congress wants to utilise the election victory to eliminate physically the CPI(M) and the Left in many areas. This has to be resisted and fought back. The democratic sentiments of the people in West Bengal have to be roused against such violence. The entire Party, the Left and democratic forces in the country stand steadfastly with the CPI(M) and the Left Front in West Bengal to rebuff such attacks.

‘Our assessment now is that we will win the elections’: Prakash Karat

The Full Text of an interview by Karan Thapar, with Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Prakash Karat, for the programme ‘The Devil’s Advocate,’ telecast over CNN-IBN on March 27.

How does the Left view its prospects in the forthcoming elections? Let’s start with the forthcoming elections in West Bengal and Kerala. There’s a widespread expectation that the Left will lose both. Can you accept that the wind is against you?

No, I think these expectations will be belied. In the case of West Bengal we have seen this in the last two elections, in 2001 and 2006, also. They said we’re facing a very difficult fight, and we proved that we could win quite comfortably.

All right, let’s for a moment focus on [West] Bengal, I’ll come to Kerala later. Last year, in 2010, you lost the provincial polls; in 2009 you lost the national polls as well as State byelections; in 2008 you lost the panchayat elections. Isn’t there a clear trend against you?

No. Indeed, [in the] Lok Sabha elections and the municipal elections we lost ground. We’ve taken note of that, and in the last one year, since then, we’ve made efforts to recover the ground.

But when you say you made efforts to recover the ground, just concentrate for a moment on the sweeping nature of these three electoral defeats. In 2009 you collapsed to your worst-ever performance in a national election in your party’s 47-year history. In 2010 in the provincial polls, you won just 18 out of 81 [local bodies], whilst the Trinamool [Congress] and the Congress won 40 together. The ground that you’ve to make up is huge.

We’ve made up ground, and the response we’re getting in the last few months in particular show that we’ve recovered ground quite a lot compared to the situation in 2009.

But are you really telling me that you’ve recovered enough ground to be able to claim that you can win the State elections?

Yes. Our assessment now is that we will win the elections. We know that there is a very strong combination against us. There is an anti-Left combination which stretches from the right to the extreme left. But despite that we are confident of winning the elections.

I’m going to make you repeat it. You’re really saying to me, sincerely, and this is not bravado, that you believe you can win the elections in Bengal?

Yes.

But look for a moment at the collapse of your party, not just your party, the Left’s image in the State. Nandigram and Singur have battered you. In contrast, Mamata Banerjee’s simplicity, integrity and her stand on Nandigram and Singur are being praised. Your negatives have become her positives.

No, no, it’s not so. As far as Singur is concerned, I don’t think the people of Bengal are going to blame us for the loss of that [Tata] automobile project.

You mean they’ve forgiven you, or they’ve forgotten?

No, they’re not going to blame us, I say. They’re going to blame the Trinamool Congress for this.

But what about the impression that has been created that you were land-grabbing at the cost of the poor. That’s the real problem that you face?

I think that propaganda against us has been dispelled because they will look at our record for the last 34 years — that this is the State which has distributed land to the highest level in the entire country.

You know, you say that it has been dispelled, and in fact you call it propaganda. But let me quote your colleague, the General Secretary of the CPI, A. B. Bardhan. He says, and I’m quoting that: “After 34 years in power the Left in Bengal has become swollen-headed, arrogant and alienated.” Then, he added: “It seems to me that there is some alienation between our cadres and our activists on the one hand and the people on the other.” Are you saying that he’s wrong?

The statement was made…

… roughly eight months ago.

That’s what I was going to say, more than six months ago. One aspect is that if there is alienation among many sections of the people with our party and our party organisations, we’ve identified that and taken steps to remove that alienation.

What steps have you taken?

Well, at the party level, at the government level, we have taken steps. We’ve reached out to these people, we have forged links again with people who may have turned away from us.

You may have taken steps and you may have reached out. How do you know that it has actually had the desired affect on the people? Because everyone is saying that the Left is heading towards its first defeat in 34 years.

We’ve won elections [in West Bengal] seven times. We’ve a party organisation which makes an assessment of our support, of the type of links we have with the people. And we will rely on that organisation again to make an assessment.

But isn’t that one of the problems you’ve faced: that after 34 years in power there’s a certain boredom, or at least an ennui, with you, people want a change? You’re battling against anti-incumbency.

Let’s see what the people decide. As far as we are concerned, we are confident that the people of Bengal will judge us and judge the Trinamool Congress alliance by what they stand for and their respective records.

Let me give you one other reason why people believe that actually, within your hearts, the Left is terribly scared. Look at the nature of your candidates. You’ve dropped 91 sitting MLAs including nine Ministers, over 50 per cent of the people.

It’s not [about being] scared, it’s a part of party policy. In the last election we dropped as many candidates.

Well, actually this time you have 8.9 per cent more new faces than you had in 2006.

I hope it’s good. We wanted it.

But, in fact, you’ve gone even further. You’ve increased Muslim representation by 33 per cent, women’s representation by 35 per cent. In fact, overall over 50 per cent of the faces you’re fielding are new and untried. Most people say that when a party takes such radical reforms, it’s a clear sign of desperation.

Well, they can’t have their cake and eat it too. Because on the other hand they say we keep repeating the same old faces and they don’t bring any change, or don’t bring any new people.

So your bottom line is: you’re going to win in [West] Bengal and surprise everyone?

Our approach is that whatever reverses we suffered we’ve learnt the lessons from that. Our Chief Minister has again and again said that we have learnt form those mistakes and we are confident that the people will support us.

On Kerala

Let’s then come to Kerala. Now this is a State where for over 40 years since 1970 at each election a new government has been formed in Thiruvananthapuram. Do you really have the confidence to say you’re going to buck a 40-year trend?

No, I think this is overrated, this five-year cyclical change. There have been instances [where] elections have been won by the same party again.

Not since 1970.

But in 1991 there was an aberration because… we would have won the election but an abnormal situation developed after Mr. Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. So I’m confident that here also we can break this five- year pattern.

But look at the handicap that you face when you go into this particular poll. Your party goes in torn between the Pinrayai Vijayan faction on the one hand and Achuthanandan on the other. That’s a huge handicap.

In fact, this is exactly what they said in 2006, when they said our party’s riven by factionalism. And we won the highest number of seats ever in Kerala.

But you’re forgetting an important fact that in 2006 the LDF was new, the UDF had been in power. You had anti-incumbency in your favour. This time the anti-incumbency [factor] is against you.

As far as we’re concerned, there is no real anti-incumbency in Kerala against the LDF government.

But the problem is that you’re creating your own problems. Look at the flip-flop over the candidature of Achuthanandan. It happened in 2006, but because circumstances were different you survived it. It has now happened in 2011 when anti-incumbency is against you, and this is going to underline to everyone what a divided house you are.

No, it’s not that. Our party held consultations at all levels before finalising the candidates.

And then reversed it.

No, we didn’t make any changes. The final list of candidates was announced on March 18. There was no change in the list.

Except that the State Committee had announced — and it was on every front page — that Achuthanandan would not be a candidate. Two days later you changed it.

We expected that in the media it would come in this way. That’s why the final list of candidates was not finalised till the State Committee sent it down for opinions, down below to the party committees, and then they made the finalisation.

But even beyond this controversy, there’s another reason why people say that Achuthanandan’s candidature shows that you’re out of touch with the mood of the people. He’s 87. Ordinarily at his age he should be happy to retire. Yet, you’re fielding him again at a time when polls by Deccan Chronicle show that 42 per cent of young Kerala voters between 18 and 25 prefer the UDF and only 31 prefer your alliance, the LDF. He’s the wrong man for these people.

In fact, everybody says that the strongpoint of the LDF has been Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and his record as the Chief Minister for the past five years.

Then it’s even more bizarre that you should have actually seriously considered at the State level not fielding him.

No, there was no such question at all. The discussions inside the party culminated in a final decision by the State Committee, which announced Mr. Achuthanandan as the candidate.

Except… the problem is that the discussions inside the party had been published outside the party.

The information the Malayalam media is speculating [over] is why from the Polit Bureau I did not go and take a decision there. We did not do that because we wanted the State Committee to take the decision.

But the problem is that all of this has been on the front pages, it’s been on television. Hasn’t it underlined the belief that this is a divided party quarrelling within itself?

As you said, this is what was done in 2006 also. It didn’t matter at all to the results.

So just like Bengal, you’re saying to me that you’re confident you’re going to win in Kerala?

We’re hopeful, we’re expecting a good result in Kerala too.

Is that confidence, or are you being careful with your words?

No, we’ve made an assessment. The issues that will dominate the Kerala elections will be price rise and corruption, in which the Congress and the UDF will stand indicted because of the record of the Central government.

So, I’m going to get you to repeat, just for clarity, what you have already said a couple of times. You’re saying to me as General Secretary of the CPI(M).

Yes.

And the most important person in the Left as a whole. That you believe that the Left will retain power in both [West] Bengal and Kerala, that’s what you’re saying?

Yes, yes.

You really mean it?

In both [West] Bengal and Kerala.

You’re sure this isn’t going to end up being famous last words?

No.

WikiLeaks revelations

Let’s come to WikiLeaks and let’s first talk about allegations that MPs were bought in 2008. In your eyes, is this just an opportunity to embarrass the government, or do you really believe Congress MPs like Satish Sharma would boast to unknown, unnamed junior employees of the American Embassy, that they had not only bribed four RLD MPs but that they had a stash of Rs. 50 crores to bribe more?

First of all, I think it should be clear that these are cables sent by the U.S. Embassy in India to the State Department, and they’re reporting something which is confidential. It was not meant to be made public. So I don’t see any reason why U.S. Embassy officials should fabricate something which is not there. Secondly, we don’t see this as the first proof available of such bribery or votes-for-cash having happened, because all of us who were there involved at that time in the vote of confidence… On the day before the vote of confidence, the days preceding that, every party got reports of MPs being approached by ruling party persons offering money, or other forms of intimidation, etc.

I won’t deny that contemporaneously…

So we’ve all gone public. We all held press conferences saying this is what is happening.

I won’t deny that contemporaneously there was bribing happening or about to happen. The problem is in these leaks. It’s not Stephen White, the Deputy Chief of Mission, who actually saw the money or who had this conversation with Nachiketa Kapur. It’s an unnamed junior employee of his Embassy, so junior that he can’t even be defined by his designation. Now, that man may have been misled, he may have been actually making up a story, for all we know. Stephen White was simply relying on what he was told. And that’s why I repeat: do you really believe the revelations?

No, I think the person involved — and we have a fairly good idea — is at the level of the Political Officer or the Political Counselor.

We don’t know that the junior employee is a Political Counselor.

Nobody said that it’s a junior employee.

Well, he’s described as an employee of the U.S. Embassy. He’s not described as a Political Counselor.

We know the type of people who maintain contacts with political parties and political leaders. Generally it’s the Political Officer or the Political Counselor.

Let me bluntly put it like this. Are you really prepared to believe the word of an unnamed employee of the U.S. Embassy over the word of the Prime Minister of India?

We believe this is additional confirmation of what we already know, and the case is not only of three MPs inside the Parliament producing cash. There were innumerable instances of money being offered to MPs, and I can give you a whole list of them because we compiled them at that time.

All right, so you’re saying to me that you believe the credibility.

And this was done by the Congress leadership and I don’t see how the Prime Minister was ignorant of this.

So you’re saying to me that you believe the cable which says that there was money.

I’m saying that it is an additional confirmation, that’s all.

Additional confirmation. It fits into a pattern?

It fits into what we already know.

Cabinet choices

Let’s come to something else that WikiLeaks has revealed. David Mulford, the American Ambassador, says that he believes that the Cabinet reshuffle in 2006 where Mani Shanker Aiyar was replaced by Murli Deora as Petroleum Minister was done to enhance Indo-U.S. relations. At that time your party was supporting the government. Is this true?

It’s 100 per cent true, and that same cable says the Left is going to be infuriated by this reshuffle.

How do you know it’s 100 per cent true?

Because we knew it. We knew why Mani Shanker Aiyar was shifted out of the Petroleum Ministry.

You knew it at the time?

Yes, we knew why it was done.

What was the reason why you think it was done?

Because of the energy policy he pursued, which is said there in the cable. His efforts to bring the India-Pakistan-Iran pipeline to fruition. His efforts to bring an alternative energy grid. His talks in China. All this we knew, that’s why he was being shifted out.

So you’re saying to me, and you’re saying it as the General Secretary of the CPI(M)…

And they bring a pro-American person into the Ministry replacing Mani Shankar Aiyar. We strongly objected to that.

You’re saying to me as General Secretary and as a man whose party supported the government in 2006 that at the time, in 2006, you knew that Mani was replaced by Murli Deora as Petroleum Minister because Mani was pursuing an energy policy the Americans didn’t like.

Yes, exactly.

Murli Deora would have pursued a policy they would have liked? That’s why he was replaced by the other man?

That’s only part of this. But the entire Cabinet reshuffle or the expansion brought, as the cable points out… people are closely associated with United States of America.

So you believe all those other claims made in that cable that people such as Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal were all brought in…

The entire 2006 was the period we were having increasing problems with the UPA government for their adopting pro-American policies.

Let me put this to you. If you were aware at that time — and additionally, without your support the government couldn’t have survived — why didn’t you at that time protest?

No, we’re protesting all the time.

Why didn’t you protest in public?

Why should we protest in public? We conveyed our displeasure to the Prime Minister on the Iran policy, on the IAEA vote, we cannot interfere in the Cabinet-making but we made public responses…

But Mr. Prakash, never once in public did anyone from Left — not just you, anyone — ever say that these Cabinet reshuffles were happening at America’s behest, to please America and follow a pro-American line.

Let me finish, on policy matters we went on record from July 2005 when the Prime Minister went to Washington. On every issue which concerned policy. But individual Cabinet [issues] we don’t comment [on] publicly because we are not in the government, we are not the part of the coalition.

But you’re saying something very strange. This was a Cabinet reshuffle done perhaps at America’s behest to bring pro-American people and to follow an American line, and you were aware of it. You protested in private but in public you kept quiet…

No, not about the reshuffle. I said the policies we protested.

But if you were aware that the reshuffle was because of pro-American…

No, it’s not our government, it’s the Congress’ government. They can bring anybody they want. We’re not a coalition partner. That is why we withdrew support, because of the continuous pro-U.S…

But you did not withdraw support till two years later…

No, everybody knew from 2005, if you see every record from the military agreement to the nuclear agreement to the joint statement to the energy policy to the attitude to Iran, everything. Everybody knew for two years we were fighting the UPA government.

I agree that people knew what your policy differences were. But what I find bizarre is that you were also aware of the Cabinet changes happening at America’s behest and you said nothing about it, you didn’t even speak out in public about it?

Because the whole government is pro-U.S., headed by the Prime Minister himself, why should I talk about individual Ministers?

You could have brought the government down. You chose not to do so.

No, we brought the government down after they went ahead with all those policies.

But you acquiesced over the reshuffle?

No, you don’t know the two-year struggle was there… which everybody knew.

You have no conscience about this?

We fought it publicly.

You don’t think people will think it’s bizarre that you…

If you’re talking about conscience, we were the only people in this country… when the entire corporate media were pro-American, when the government was pro-American, when the Congress leadership was pro-American, surrendered to America, we were the only ones who fought it.

My last question, you are not worried, leave aside embarrassed, that people will say, he knew it is being done America’s way yet he kept quite about Mani [Shankar Aiyar] being removed?

It’s not about Mani, why are you saying Mani? I’m saying from the Prime Minister onwards they were like this.

All right, I’ll leave it there, but I think this is an issue that will probably attract greater attention in the future.

No, this is not an issue. This is a question on how we fought this government, and still the WikiLeaks show that they’re still following those policies.

Mr. Karat, a pleasure talking to you.

THE HINDU , Published: March 27, 2011 17:31 IST | Updated: March 28, 2011 11:59 IST