In my earlier blog, I have reasoned in detail importance of regional parties in coalition government in India at a time when both national parties-Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) waning its influence and importance in the country's political scenario!
Communism has their origin lies before the independence of the Country. Communists had initially split from the Indian National Congress and subsequently from a pressure group within the Congress-Congress Socialist Party(CSP). Many books have been written on the origin of Communism in India (Whilch I will name later on), mainly on the communists' split with the Congress Socialist Party; the CPI 's stand on the second world war; the second party congress in 1948; evolution of tactical line, the leaders' historic meeting with Joseph Stalin in Moscow; the Telengna struggle and the Andhra Thesis. Eminent writer A G Noorani has threw light on communism and communists . In my view, communist plays important role in this coalition era in the country!
On the basis of an interview with towering communist leader of India , Jyoti Basu on behalf of NMMLby , Shikha Mukherjee and Usha Prasad on December 18,2001 on some in depth facts about communism and its role in formation of coalition governments at the centre and states have come to light. Apart from speaking about lack of proper policy with regards to giving autonomy and more powers to the Kashmiris, ways to put down militancy and solution of problems politically etc, Jyoti Basu had said to the interviewers, "It was not just once that he was invited to become prime minister. The full accounts bear quotations in extenso. You see, when the United Front was there, we got a majority and the Congress said that it would support us so as to keep the BJP at bay. So we got together, but who would be the prime minister? VPSingh would be the best person, but he was ill. So they all, 12 parties, said: you must be the prime minister.Why did they say it? It was not because I am God's son, but because, as you said, I have got experiences of running a United Front government and the left Front government. That is why they thought that our party should join the 12-parties government, and I should become prime minister."
Basu had further said, "Then what happened was that because before the elections, we had no common programme although we were fighting together against the Congress. we said in the election meetings-I had spoken in many election meetings: We should help to form government but we will not be part of it(That had been our View). Now since you are requesting 12 parties, including CPI, whose representative Indrajit Gupta became the home minister, we have to call a meeting of the central committee of the CPI-M. That is the way we function; it is democratic functioning. So we called a meeting of of the central committee on their request:: This new situation has arisen and so we have to have a programme that they want us to enter the government and I become the prime minister. In voting there was division. I think by 8 or 10 votes we lost-our general secretary and I were in the minority. We thought politically it would be excellent thing and the right thing to do so to join this government and head it, try to lead it. Even though it may be for few months, it would be politically advantageous. But the majority thought otherwise that it would be a great risk for us to join with these people but we said: Already we had worked out common minimum programme for West Bengal United Front government. Now we will have common minimum programme at the centre. As people saw in West Bengal united Front government, similarly, on an all India scale it will help our party, it will help the left forces. Other said: nothing can be done with leading the government but we can support 12 of them. Some of them , that is true also, were very much against our policies like the then Finance minister, he was very much against our policy but our argument was: In the centre, the prime minister is unlike what we have in West Bengal, in Kerala. In the centre the prime minister wields a lot of influences and we can for the time being influence them***********The people would have new experience,. Within these limitations so many things could be done. Then if we are thrown out we shall leave a new experience for the people cannot last for five years. The Congress is supporting us. When they will withdraw support, people will judge who is to blame. If it is breaks up, then we could leave some thing behind for the people***** but my argument was not accepted by the majority. Again a second meeting was called. This time also we failed. Among the comrades of West Bengal also there are also division******".
"When 11 non-communist parties, VPSingh and others asked the CPI(M)-the CPI had decided to join the government-to join the government will with me as prime minister, it would be correct step. In parliamentary democracy, never in the world has a such situation arisen. Again I say this is a historic blunder. Historic, why, because such opportunity does not come, history does not present you with such opportunities. But anyway that was that..........."
AS regards BJP coalition working, Basu had said, " all these state parties and groups want to become ministers. We cannot form such coalition. According to us, if there is not minimum understanding sincerely pursued , we should not have a government, but the BJP does not believe in any principles or politics, it wants to rule and Hinduvata and all this business are there; they are guided by the RSS (Rashtriya Swayasevak Sangh) and the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad),, " Basu added and cited several examples when he was requested by Congress including Arjun Singh, Pranaba Mukherjee and Samajwadi leaders like Chandra Shekhar and the then Samajwadi Yashwant Sinha , now in BJP, Mulayam singh Yadav had requested me to become prime minister!
Now I will shift on history of Communist movement in India. To begin with I must refer towering EMS Namboodirpad and his interview to Hari Prasad Sharma. EMS had said, "Actually I first came in touch with the communist groups in Andhra about February 1935 when M RMasani and myself were returning from Nagpur where a meeting of the national executive of Congress Socialist Party(CSP) was being held. We both went to Guntur to address a meeting of the ( CSP). There there was a group of communists; they were putting questions to Masani and he was answering them. Persons , who were asking questions on behalf of e M Basavapunniah of Communist Party. I was not knowing them and had no interactions with them. The actual personal contact that I had with communist with South India or with the communists anywhere in India was some time in October 1935 and that was at Madras with P Sundarayya.. Again the opportunity was meeting of Indian National Congress in Madras in which I had gone there to participate as Congress delegate.There a radical conference was being held, a forum in which all the radical groups like the Royists, the CPI, the CSP and unattached individuals and trade unions had been participating. The meeting was attended by Krishna Pillai and myself. One of the delegates was also P Sundarayya. and I met him and that the first real discussions held between authorised representatives of the Communist Party and us in 1935."
EMS had further said to interviewer, " a nucleus of Communist Party was formed in Andhra. From there my journey to communist party began. There after I met Jayaprakash Narayan, actively involved in CSP and told him that I was keeping contacts with communists. CSP led by JP wanted to unite all revolutionary forces including the communists. From there I spread the network of communist party in Kerala and other parts of the country.: EMS added.
P Sundaarayya was legend in his own life time in Telengana. He had told HDSharma in his interview, " JP and Acharya Narendra Dev and certain other sections were definitely for a united movement though they did not want this full-fledged communist approach. One accusation against us that the communists will always follow the instruction they got from the communist international or what they call the Soviet leadership. Majority was with JP, naturally, did not accept some of the issues that were raised and knowing that we could not get through we also did not insist too much on it.Congress socialism was contradictory in words and would pave way to fascism," he added and continued for ultra communist movement in Telengana region of Andhra.
Another senior Communist leader Basavapunniah told his interviewer Sharma about the Telengana revolt in detail. After war in 1945, this movement in Nizam's areas had taken a very militant form. When we had to fight against Nizam, his Razakars, his army, his police and all that, then we were compelled to go far guerrilla warfare, armed warfare and with all these ideas we had go through Mao's theory of partisan welfare, guerrilla warfare and peasant warfare etc.. The Andhra unit took the lead in this respect because it went into action first, a militant form of struggle and faced police bullets, repression by armies of theNizam and all that.. The second phase of revolution was after the Indian government had come in. The alternative that had posed before us was either to abandon the whole struggle and leave the land and leave the peasantry to its fate or to organise the peasantry and resist and demand that these lands must be with us and not allow landlords to reoccupy the land. The Government of India was trying to suppress it with arms. We decided to that we must resist the maximum. So this resistance went for on for three years. Whereas Sardar Patel was thinking that in 30 days everything will be finished but it took three years. Meanwhile Sardar had finished himself but the movement it was not finished."
In between Communist party faced many splits in its rank and file! But the communism have not died down.. Of all communist leaders SA Dngeh proved a villain of the piece in weakening the communism in India. In 1920s Dange, of fascinating character man, a brilliant pamphleteer, orator and a supple tactician had apologised to the British government and released from Sitapur jail where he was serving four-year-sentence in Kanpur conspiracy case, eminent columnist Noorani has said..
Ultimately united Communist party split and CPI(M) and CPI remained on in existence as well as communist , having hard lines design, also split and continuing in various factions like CPI-ML , many groups, CPI (Maoists) etc. But these communist parties have their regional standings and winning elections of both Lok Sabha and state assemblies in the country and raising the voices of poor against exploitations
.
SOURCE:Essays of AGNoorani; in three parts in Fortnightly English FRontline, Extracts from interviews with senior leaders of the Communist movement conducted on behalf of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library,, The Current, a Bombay tabloid of March 07,1964.; Statements of veteran communist and ablest pamphleteers of the country PCJoshi; EMS's book How I become a communist, Chinta Publication, 1976; Reminiscences of an Indian Communist, National Book Centre, 1987 AKGopalan's book- In the Cause of the People: Reminiscences, Orient Longsman-1973; Muzaffar Alis's Myself and the Communist Party of India 1920-1929, National Book agency , Calcutta-1970;; P Sundarayya's Telengan Peoples' struggle and its lesson, published by Desraj Chadha on behalf of Communist Party of India -Marxist; NKKrishanan's Testament of Faith......Memoirs of a communist, New Delhi Publishing House-1990; ; Mohit Sen's a traveller and the Road: The journey of Indian Communist, Rupa and Company, 2003>.
Communism has their origin lies before the independence of the Country. Communists had initially split from the Indian National Congress and subsequently from a pressure group within the Congress-Congress Socialist Party(CSP). Many books have been written on the origin of Communism in India (Whilch I will name later on), mainly on the communists' split with the Congress Socialist Party; the CPI 's stand on the second world war; the second party congress in 1948; evolution of tactical line, the leaders' historic meeting with Joseph Stalin in Moscow; the Telengna struggle and the Andhra Thesis. Eminent writer A G Noorani has threw light on communism and communists . In my view, communist plays important role in this coalition era in the country!
On the basis of an interview with towering communist leader of India , Jyoti Basu on behalf of NMMLby , Shikha Mukherjee and Usha Prasad on December 18,2001 on some in depth facts about communism and its role in formation of coalition governments at the centre and states have come to light. Apart from speaking about lack of proper policy with regards to giving autonomy and more powers to the Kashmiris, ways to put down militancy and solution of problems politically etc, Jyoti Basu had said to the interviewers, "It was not just once that he was invited to become prime minister. The full accounts bear quotations in extenso. You see, when the United Front was there, we got a majority and the Congress said that it would support us so as to keep the BJP at bay. So we got together, but who would be the prime minister? VPSingh would be the best person, but he was ill. So they all, 12 parties, said: you must be the prime minister.Why did they say it? It was not because I am God's son, but because, as you said, I have got experiences of running a United Front government and the left Front government. That is why they thought that our party should join the 12-parties government, and I should become prime minister."
Basu had further said, "Then what happened was that because before the elections, we had no common programme although we were fighting together against the Congress. we said in the election meetings-I had spoken in many election meetings: We should help to form government but we will not be part of it(That had been our View). Now since you are requesting 12 parties, including CPI, whose representative Indrajit Gupta became the home minister, we have to call a meeting of the central committee of the CPI-M. That is the way we function; it is democratic functioning. So we called a meeting of of the central committee on their request:: This new situation has arisen and so we have to have a programme that they want us to enter the government and I become the prime minister. In voting there was division. I think by 8 or 10 votes we lost-our general secretary and I were in the minority. We thought politically it would be excellent thing and the right thing to do so to join this government and head it, try to lead it. Even though it may be for few months, it would be politically advantageous. But the majority thought otherwise that it would be a great risk for us to join with these people but we said: Already we had worked out common minimum programme for West Bengal United Front government. Now we will have common minimum programme at the centre. As people saw in West Bengal united Front government, similarly, on an all India scale it will help our party, it will help the left forces. Other said: nothing can be done with leading the government but we can support 12 of them. Some of them , that is true also, were very much against our policies like the then Finance minister, he was very much against our policy but our argument was: In the centre, the prime minister is unlike what we have in West Bengal, in Kerala. In the centre the prime minister wields a lot of influences and we can for the time being influence them***********The people would have new experience,. Within these limitations so many things could be done. Then if we are thrown out we shall leave a new experience for the people cannot last for five years. The Congress is supporting us. When they will withdraw support, people will judge who is to blame. If it is breaks up, then we could leave some thing behind for the people***** but my argument was not accepted by the majority. Again a second meeting was called. This time also we failed. Among the comrades of West Bengal also there are also division******".
"When 11 non-communist parties, VPSingh and others asked the CPI(M)-the CPI had decided to join the government-to join the government will with me as prime minister, it would be correct step. In parliamentary democracy, never in the world has a such situation arisen. Again I say this is a historic blunder. Historic, why, because such opportunity does not come, history does not present you with such opportunities. But anyway that was that..........."
AS regards BJP coalition working, Basu had said, " all these state parties and groups want to become ministers. We cannot form such coalition. According to us, if there is not minimum understanding sincerely pursued , we should not have a government, but the BJP does not believe in any principles or politics, it wants to rule and Hinduvata and all this business are there; they are guided by the RSS (Rashtriya Swayasevak Sangh) and the VHP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad),, " Basu added and cited several examples when he was requested by Congress including Arjun Singh, Pranaba Mukherjee and Samajwadi leaders like Chandra Shekhar and the then Samajwadi Yashwant Sinha , now in BJP, Mulayam singh Yadav had requested me to become prime minister!
Now I will shift on history of Communist movement in India. To begin with I must refer towering EMS Namboodirpad and his interview to Hari Prasad Sharma. EMS had said, "Actually I first came in touch with the communist groups in Andhra about February 1935 when M RMasani and myself were returning from Nagpur where a meeting of the national executive of Congress Socialist Party(CSP) was being held. We both went to Guntur to address a meeting of the ( CSP). There there was a group of communists; they were putting questions to Masani and he was answering them. Persons , who were asking questions on behalf of e M Basavapunniah of Communist Party. I was not knowing them and had no interactions with them. The actual personal contact that I had with communist with South India or with the communists anywhere in India was some time in October 1935 and that was at Madras with P Sundarayya.. Again the opportunity was meeting of Indian National Congress in Madras in which I had gone there to participate as Congress delegate.There a radical conference was being held, a forum in which all the radical groups like the Royists, the CPI, the CSP and unattached individuals and trade unions had been participating. The meeting was attended by Krishna Pillai and myself. One of the delegates was also P Sundarayya. and I met him and that the first real discussions held between authorised representatives of the Communist Party and us in 1935."
EMS had further said to interviewer, " a nucleus of Communist Party was formed in Andhra. From there my journey to communist party began. There after I met Jayaprakash Narayan, actively involved in CSP and told him that I was keeping contacts with communists. CSP led by JP wanted to unite all revolutionary forces including the communists. From there I spread the network of communist party in Kerala and other parts of the country.: EMS added.
P Sundaarayya was legend in his own life time in Telengana. He had told HDSharma in his interview, " JP and Acharya Narendra Dev and certain other sections were definitely for a united movement though they did not want this full-fledged communist approach. One accusation against us that the communists will always follow the instruction they got from the communist international or what they call the Soviet leadership. Majority was with JP, naturally, did not accept some of the issues that were raised and knowing that we could not get through we also did not insist too much on it.Congress socialism was contradictory in words and would pave way to fascism," he added and continued for ultra communist movement in Telengana region of Andhra.
Another senior Communist leader Basavapunniah told his interviewer Sharma about the Telengana revolt in detail. After war in 1945, this movement in Nizam's areas had taken a very militant form. When we had to fight against Nizam, his Razakars, his army, his police and all that, then we were compelled to go far guerrilla warfare, armed warfare and with all these ideas we had go through Mao's theory of partisan welfare, guerrilla warfare and peasant warfare etc.. The Andhra unit took the lead in this respect because it went into action first, a militant form of struggle and faced police bullets, repression by armies of theNizam and all that.. The second phase of revolution was after the Indian government had come in. The alternative that had posed before us was either to abandon the whole struggle and leave the land and leave the peasantry to its fate or to organise the peasantry and resist and demand that these lands must be with us and not allow landlords to reoccupy the land. The Government of India was trying to suppress it with arms. We decided to that we must resist the maximum. So this resistance went for on for three years. Whereas Sardar Patel was thinking that in 30 days everything will be finished but it took three years. Meanwhile Sardar had finished himself but the movement it was not finished."
In between Communist party faced many splits in its rank and file! But the communism have not died down.. Of all communist leaders SA Dngeh proved a villain of the piece in weakening the communism in India. In 1920s Dange, of fascinating character man, a brilliant pamphleteer, orator and a supple tactician had apologised to the British government and released from Sitapur jail where he was serving four-year-sentence in Kanpur conspiracy case, eminent columnist Noorani has said..
Ultimately united Communist party split and CPI(M) and CPI remained on in existence as well as communist , having hard lines design, also split and continuing in various factions like CPI-ML , many groups, CPI (Maoists) etc. But these communist parties have their regional standings and winning elections of both Lok Sabha and state assemblies in the country and raising the voices of poor against exploitations
.
SOURCE:Essays of AGNoorani; in three parts in Fortnightly English FRontline, Extracts from interviews with senior leaders of the Communist movement conducted on behalf of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library,, The Current, a Bombay tabloid of March 07,1964.; Statements of veteran communist and ablest pamphleteers of the country PCJoshi; EMS's book How I become a communist, Chinta Publication, 1976; Reminiscences of an Indian Communist, National Book Centre, 1987 AKGopalan's book- In the Cause of the People: Reminiscences, Orient Longsman-1973; Muzaffar Alis's Myself and the Communist Party of India 1920-1929, National Book agency , Calcutta-1970;; P Sundarayya's Telengan Peoples' struggle and its lesson, published by Desraj Chadha on behalf of Communist Party of India -Marxist; NKKrishanan's Testament of Faith......Memoirs of a communist, New Delhi Publishing House-1990; ; Mohit Sen's a traveller and the Road: The journey of Indian Communist, Rupa and Company, 2003>.
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