'No short-cuts to build up the Communist Party'

Published : May 06, 2005 00:00 IST

Interview with Prakash Karat.

Prakash Karat, the new general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), was back at his spartan office - furnished with a small wooden desk and a wooden chair - in Delhi's AKG Bhawan barely an hour after the conclusion of the Congress that elected him to the principal organisational position in the party. Not for him the celebrations that accompany organisational elevations in other parties or even a period of rest after a taxing six- day conference. Venkitesh Ramakrishnan met him the day after the Congress in the office. Excerpts from the interview.

The 18th Congress of the CPI(M) has etched out a three-point action plan for the party - struggles against communalism, neoliberalism and imperialism. But, Communist Cparties normally highlight a principal task or a principal enemy in any given context. So, what would say is the principal task in the present situation?

We have explained in our political resolution that the fight against communalism and neoliberal policies are interconnected. And also that both communal forces as well as advocates of neoliberalism are generally pro-imperialist. So, all three are interconnected. In such a context, all these struggles have to be carried out together.

Does this not signify a shift from the tactical position CPI(M) had during the Lok Sabha elections? The party's principal focus then was fighting communal forces as represented by the BJP led NDA, but now when you say that the struggle against the advocates of neoliberalism is equally important, the Congress should also naturally become a principal target ...

In the last [17th] party Congress we had said that the central task is to fight and defeat the BJP and its allies. We had also talked about the struggle against the economic policies. We have successfully defeated the BJP and its allies. But that does not mean that the struggle against communalism is over. That will continue and at the same time we will intensify the struggle against the harmful economic policies and fight for alternative policies. This should not be seen merely at the level of political parties. This is not just about Congress party, BJP or its allies. Our experience is that all the ruling class parties do not basically differ on economic policies. So, when we say fight against neoliberal economic policies it is a general direction and it should not be seen in reference to the Congress party alone.

The party Congress has reaffirmed its commitment to the development of a Alternative with a common policy foundation. There have also been statements about the need to launch mass agitations in order to develop the Third Alternative. In concrete terms, how does the party plan to go about this process and who according to you would be the CPI(M)'s partners

Our basic understanding is that the real alternative is the Left and Democratic alternative. But that is not realisable now or in the near future. In the interim, we would like to gather all the forces to present, what we call as the Alternative. In that alternative, we are asking for some commonality of views and approach among the parties and forces that are gathered. We do not expect these forces to agree from these forces on everything that the CPI(M) stands for or the Left stands for. But there must be some common, minimum understanding on tackling some of the major problems in the country. The main thing is that it should not be reduced to a mere electoral understanding, forged on the eve of the elections. We have arrived at this position, learning from past experience. So, when we talk about the Third Alternative now what we are saying is that these forces must have a common policy framework and must show a willingness to take up joint activities likecampaigns and movements to achieve the same.

One discussion point in the Congress was about the party's inability to makeorganisational gains out of the election-oriented united fronts it had forged, especially in north Indian States. How do you propose to change it?

A comprehensive review of our united front tactics was undertaken in the last Congress and it was pointed that in places where we have prolonged associations, there is a tendency of our own independent activity getting blurred. It was also emphasised then that every election adjustment need not be treated as a united front. There has been further discussion on this and the experience of certain states where we have not correctly applied these tactics was highlighted. These aberrations are getting corrected.

There is a special focus on expanding the party in northern India. How do you plan to go about it?

My experience of working in Delhi and other north Indian states has shown that there are no short-cuts to build up the Communist party. A communist pcan be built up only by following Communist norms and structures of organisation. There are no quick formulas to do it.

The document on policy matters presented at the party Congress has been rated as historic by many observers. The document has stated that existing world realities, which includes globalisation, cannot be wished away and that a communist phas to engage it. There is a view that this is for the first time that a communist p, at the level of a party Congress, has acknowledged that globalisation cannot be wished away. Could you explain as to what concretely would be the forms of engagement visualised by this document?

This flows from the understanding given in the CPI(M)'s party programme, which was updated in 2000. In that programme, we have taken into account the present world realities and the big changes that have taken place in the international context following the dismantling of the Soviet Union and evolved a perspective on how to complete the people's democratic revolution in our own country. Much of what we are saying now is based on that programmatic perspective. Questions addressed on the basis of this programmatic perspective include foreign capital investment, the role of the public sector and the role of the private sector. We are trying to concretise this understanding in the present situation through this new document. Some of it we have already started implementing. We are doing it where we have state governments; we are doing it even at the level of alternate policies we are presenting. This implementation has been discussed at the level of the Polit Bureau and the Central Committee but the entire party has to understand the direction of these policies. That is why the document was presented and discussed at the party Congress. There has been wide-ranging discussion on it and the Congress has authorised the new Central Committee to incorporate the necessary changes in the light of these discussions and finalise it.

The document has already been interpreted as an authorization from the CPI(M) to have greater foreign direct investment (FDI) in sectors like insurance ...

The document makes it clear that the CPI(M) is not in favour of increasing FDI in sectors like insurance and retail trade. One of the criteria we have kept for FDI is that it should generate employment. We are of the view that FDI brought in indiscriminately would displace employment on a large scale in these sectors, particularly in retail trade.

The Congress has also called for a rectification process among party cadre. There is also the admission that factionalism exists in sections of the party. What exactly would be the measures taken to address the problem?

Curbing factionalism is only one part of the rectification process. The document on this states that there has been erosion in the maintenance of Communist norms and that this negative trend has to be reversed. It also warns against the entry of undesirable elements intoto the party, particularly in the places where we are in government. He question of factionalism was taken up concretely with regard to places where it existed. Factionalism is not a general phenomenonin the party. It was also pointed out that factionalism is the result of fall in the quality of the party membership, fall in the ideological, political levels of the party membership. It is in this over all contexts that the rectification process would be implemented.

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