Intro : A mirror which the people of India has time and again shown to the Left, that a polity based on a fallen ideology is not what starved people want. Starvation demands bread, not any colour, definitely not ‘Red’. This is a call to have a participation in the nation building, positively.
Dear Comrade Yechury,
Please accept my hearty congratulations on being appointed as the new General Secretary of your party, CPI (M). Lately I saw a lot of media speculations about it, and ultimately you being here prove them right. Political pandits see this as some kind of a paradigm shift from an ideologically dogmatic reign of Prakash Karat. You are always considered as a pragmatic leader who perhaps is a little closer to Indian realities, than your other Comrades. But, is it so? In a communitarian and ideological polity, which your party has always claimed to be in, I feel, has always been about a misappropriation of real agenda and falling in the sham of a discarded philosophy. In the biggest democracy, the way your seats in the legislature talks for you, do say a lot. It do say a lot about the kind of dogmatism which you practise in the name of Marxism, your alleged attempts of high jacking issues of the poor, labourers, peasants, and secularism. Your party and others in the same league has always claimed to be the saviour of these downtrodden classes. One asks you, what did you do for them?
I remember you writing a lead in ‘The Hindu’ dated May 17, 2014. This piece carried an analysis of the Left debacle in the general elections. So truthfully titled- “We need to overcome weaknesses”, you spent your most number of words claiming that it was a victory of corporate sector and defeat of a corrupt UPA regime. I wonder where your responsibility is. In a democracy, Left always should have an instrumental role to play, to balance and counter the other side. But, the kind of politics you people practiced diminished your ideas and identity altogether. Isn’t it this the greatness of Indian tradition and democracy, that it still lend its ears to the non-sensual primitive ideas you present?
The aspirations of the people in a democratic polity are related to the vision which they elect to represent them. The continuous boast of presenting an ‘alternative vision’ has been failing to have an impact on a vast section of Indians. So this old wine in a new bottle which you started offering in interviews, should have been thought. First, it took years to have a class analysis, which still remains muddled. Then, a confession coming from you all that India needs an ‘indigenous socialism’, and always a claim of arrogance that you represent the trend of ideological politics has been rejected continuously by the people. Had people been listening to your voices of heart, you would have not been on the verge of losing a national party status. Had you been representing the poor and peasants, you would have accumulated a lot of sympathies at least, if not votes. The people of this nation desire a solution to their problems, and not the theorisation of the problems of neo-liberalism, as you had been doing so far. The idea that you represent a secular polity and socialist economy has no takers in the market. For people have out rightly rejected your alleged alternative politics, and voted a government in power that they associate with. Your continuous call for an action and struggle against communal powers and crony capitalism is again a prostrate. For all these promises are prejudiced with appropriating your political or class enemies. If there is a contentious issue which nation has faced, one wonders, how your party and idea has came up for a safe rescue.
Why this ‘open letter’ was significant? Even though if it doesn’t come, the above mentioned facts remain true and unchallenged. The fact is that your ideas are an ignorable minority. Nonetheless, the greatness of this democracy compelled me in showing you a mirror of representation. A mirror which the people of India has time and again shown you, that a polity based on a fallen ideology is not what starved people want. Starvation demands bread, not any colour, definitely not ‘Red’. This is a call to have a participation in the nation building, positively. Please, don’t try to revive what George Orwell elegantly commented in Animal Farm-“All animals are equal. But some animals are more equal than others”.
Shaan Kashyap
A History Student from BHU
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