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CPI(M) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet rushed to Moscow
in the midst of the UF leadership tussle to attend an international
meeting of communists, hosted by the Russian communist party.
Apparently, the 82-year Surjeet, the self-avowed Chanakya of Indian
politics, was needed urgently to lecture comrades on the finer
points of grabbing power in the days of coalition governments!
Though the communists form the single largest party in Russia, like
the BJP in India, they have been kept out in the cold. In contrast
our own CPI(M), with a mere 32 MPs in a House of 540-odd members,
successfully bullies everyone around. Incidentally, why Surjeet
took along Mulayam Singh Yadav's brother Ram Gopal Yadav is a
mystery, unless it was to give the comrades lessons in
booth-capturing.
Surjeet has never won an election to either the Punjab Assembly or
Parliament since the '60s, but has managed through intrigue to
enjoy all the fruits of office. In the UF Government he even
succeeded in installing his factotum Balwant Singh Ramoowalia, as a
minister by proxy.
The CPI(M) has been collecting party funds from wealthy Punjabis in
Canada and England for decades and the route for return of the
money is not always through the Reserve Bank of India, even though
the communists are fond of boasting that theirs is the only major
party whose members are not involved in any hawala. Like Jyoti
Basu's son Chandan who has turned capitalist with remarkable
success, thanks to his father's contacts, Surjeet's son too is a
flourishing businessman in the UK.
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