Author: Bhaskar Roy/TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 7, 2004
The insider's account is always
considered the most authentic. Czech writer Milan Kundera's fiction offers
deep insights into the totalitarian communist regime that rifled his homeland.
Closer home, former CPM deputy leader
in the Lok Sabha Amal Datta's book on Lenin offers viewpoints of the Communist
icon that have left the Left circles embarrassed. Datta unambiguously sees
Lenin as having unleashed state terror after the Russian Revolution. Indeed
in 'Lenin, Revolution, State and Terror', Datta has sought to demolish
Lenin's iconic status, terming him as the "father of domestic Russian terrorism,
cruel and merciless".
Seeking to dispel the notion that
Gulag exile and appalling purges were associated with Stalin alone, Datta
says in chapter 12, "But it was really Lenin who had initiated the concentration
camps, mass terror, torture and execution which were allowed to stand above
the state." He quotes Lenin urging the party to resort to terror: "We must
encourage energetic action and largescale terror against the counter-revolutionaries
especially in Petrograd as decisive example." The demonised image of the
Russian leader that comes through the 256-page book expectedly has been
rebuffed by the communists. Dismissing Datta as incapable of assessing
Lenin, CPI leader D Raja said, "He has no understanding of India, how can
he comment on Lenin and the Soviet situation soon after the revolution?"
Though Datta snapped ties with the CPM a few years ago, the fact that he
had held an important position in the party and is Jyoti Basu's nephew
has caused acute uneasiness in the Left circles.
