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Comrade Harkishen Singh Surjeet, the redoubtable general secretary
of the CPI(M), has become a very angry man. If his forthright
comments during a television interview are anything to go by,
Surjeet has decreed that this year's Budget is "elitist". "It is
not a pro-poor Budget. It is a pro-monopoly houses Budget", is
Surjeet's perception of P. Chidambaram's bid to kickstart the
economy by endorsing supply-side economics. The CPI(M) leader has
said that his party will pressure the United Front to withdraw the
income tax cuts, the lowering the custom duties and the nominal
deregulation of the insurance sector. He has also threatened to
introduce "cut motions" during the voting on the Finance Bill.
It is very tempting to interpret Surjeet's anger as evidence that
the CPI(M) has ended its honeymoon with the Deve Gowda Government
and is preparing to assume an appositional role. But the
utterances of the hardened apparatchik need not be taken at face
value. They are tempered by what Marxists would like to call
dialectics, and what the untutored would prefer to describe as
duplicity. Of course, the CPI(M) would have loved a Budget aimed
at squeezing the rich till their pips squeaked. Like the other lost
Nehruvian tribes, it still dreams of restoring the public sector to
its commanding heights. But then pragmatism prevails and the Common
Minimum Programme assumes the significance of the Communist
Manifesto. These are not compromises, but tactical adjustments to
further secular consolidation and keep the dreaded BJP out of
power.
However, as Prime Minister Deve Gowda has realised from his
countless dealings with Surjeet, tactical adjustments come with a
hefty price tag The CPI(M) may have reserved its unkindest cut for
Jyoti Basu who nurtured a secret desire to move from Salt Lake,
Calcutta, to Race Course Road, New Delhi, but even this act of
self-denial carried a price. Surjeet has already managed to secure
the appointment of one of his nominees as Cabinet minister; and a
handpicked Governor now resides in the Raj Bhavan of a state where
the CPI(M) is in power. This is not all. There have been reports
in the press of Home Minister Indrajit Gupta's dissatisfaction with
the manner in which Surjeet has bypassed North Block and secured
the appointment of officials in key posts through the Prime
Minister's Office. In the recent crisis over Governor Romesh
Bhandari's conduct in Uttar Pradesh, Surjeet's preference has not
been ideological, but dictated by realpolitik. Therefore, when
such a leader invokes principles to denounce a Budget which has
enhanced the credibility of the fragile UF Government, it is
pertinent to speculate over his real agenda. The CPI(M) general
secretary is not after some elusive cut motion, he is in search of
a different cut. The question is not what Surjeet can do for the
UF. The dispute centres on what the UF must do for Surjeet.
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