HVK Archives: Red Herring - An editorial
Red Herring - An editorial - Times of India - Editorial
Posted By ashok (ashokvc@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in)
27 June 1996
Title : Red Herrmg
Publication : Times of India - Editorial
Date : June 27, 1996
Some esteemed members of the United Front and the
Congress are said to be plotting furiously to scuttle the
allotment of the home portfolio to the Communist Party of
India. If media reports are to be believed, these sec-
tions see no reason for handing over the sensitive
ministry to the Communists who would then use it for
'subversive' purposes.Congressmen are also apparently
livid that the 13-member CPI was dictating its
preferences to Prime Minister Deve Gowda while they,
despite their large numbers and the fact that they were
propping up the government, were having to sit out. It
would have been easy to dismiss all this as media hype
were it not for the public pronouncements of some key
government figures. Last week a news magazine quoted
finance minister P. Chidambaram as saying that he would
be happy to have the Congress on board because that would
mean not depending on the Left for support. The
proreforms sections in the bureaucracy, too, have been
credited with the view that whereas Congress
participation in governance would lend cohesion to the
coalition, the Left's inclusion could only lead to
instability as the latter was bound to veto measures
which were seen as being inconsistent with its policy.
But really, is the Left the demon it is being made out to
be? Is there any ground to believe that it would be
rigid and irresponsible once in office? The Left today
is a pale shadow of what it was in the heady post-
independence years when it waged armed struggles in
Malabar and Telengana, believing that the government and
the ,national bourgeoisie' needed to be overthrown. It
has since given up counter-revolution, split into three
factions - CPI, CPM and CPI (ML) - and, barring the last,
allowed itself to be co-opted into parliamentary
politics. The CPI has produced eminent parliamentarians
and has, if anything, been ridiculed for its
'revisionism'. The party's devotion to Indira Gandhi
even earned it the sobriquet, 'Communist Party of
Indira'. If this establishes the CPI's flexibility
vis-a-vis its political friends, the Left Front's long
stint in power in Kerala and West Bengal is evidence that
it can retain both power and popularity. Indeed, the UF's
offer of premiership to Mr Jyoti Basu vouches for the
Left's acceptability. That the Left is not necessarily
obtructionist was also proved recently when it played a
vital and pleasantly pragmatic role in shaping the UF's
'common approach and minimum programme'. The opposition
to the CPI then is not so much because the party could
put the home ministry to 'misuse' as because of the fear
that untainted as the party is, it could unearth even
more skeletons than are now out. This reason - even if
the Left's contribution to making the UF is ignored -
alone dictates that the Left be treated with respect.
For, it is the Left and not the Congress which can lend
the UF government the moral authority to see it through
the difficult times ahead. Besides, if Poland and
Hungary under communist regimes can be considered for
inclusion in NATO, why not the Left in an Indian
government?
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