CPI approaches political irrelevance as it faces electoral debacles, lacklustre leadership

ARDHENDU BHUSHAN BARDHAN: Looking for a successorArdhendu Bhushan Bardhan's visits to doctors have outnumbered his meetings with Congress leaders since he turned 80 on September 25.It is strange that the CPI was formed in Kanpur in the year of its leader's birth; to be precise, he is three months older. Today, it is as if both the party and the leader are withering away. The party which once had a stronghold in the industrial belt of Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Bihar, Punjab and Kerala is today struggling to remain a national party rather than a notional communist party. With just nine MPs in the 2004 Lok Sabha, India's oldest left party, born in Kanpur on December 26, 1925 is left with two options for postponing extinction: merger with the CPI(M) or a massive revival of the party.The problem with the first option is that big brother CPI(M) is resistant to the idea of reunification because it claims to be carrying the legacy of "incorruptible" Marxism. "The merger of CPI and CPI(M) may be necessary to strengthen the Communist movement. The parties differ over the application of Leninism-Marxism in the Indian context. It is resolvable," says CPI MP from Nalgonda Sudhakar Reddy.Red Decline of CPIClick here to EnlargeThe second option seems untenable under current circumstances since a crisis of leadership is brewing within the CPI. Who will take over the party's mantle after Bardhan? There are a few aspirants, all with limited regional appeal. Then there is the possibility of Election Commission de-recognising the CPI as a national party.According to EC norms, a party requires a minimum of 11 MPs in the Lok Sabha to prove its status as a national party. After the death of former Kerala chief minister P.K. Vasudevan Nair this year, the party has only nine MPs. For the time being the party may be able to escape the EC scrutiny since norms also allow a party to stay national if it is present in a minimum of five states.The party's hold on the electorate slipped from an all-India vote share of 5 per cent in 1967 to 2.5 per cent in 1991. In Kerala for instance, the fall over a longer period has been sharp. In 1957, the party had 37.5 per cent of the state's vote share which in 1991 became 8.1 per cent.Similarly in Punjab, over the same period it reduced from 16.8 per cent to 1.6 per cent and in West Bengal from 19 per cent to 3.7 per cent. In four decades the party's parliamentary representation weakened to 1.41 per cent from 8 per cent."I admit we could have and ought to have done a lot more. But I am an optimist that the party's future is bright," says party General Secretary Bardhan.Whether the Communist movement was formally launched in India as an extension of the Soviet fallacy of a socialist utopia or by a group of nationalists swayed by the idea of freedom has only archival interest. After 80 long years, where does the CPI stand-if only it's steady enough to stand? Reduced to a minor member of the red parivar, the CPI finds it tough to defend its membership at six lakh. THE ASPIRANTSAmarjeet KaurAMARJEET KAUR: The NFIW vice-president and an active unionist has been rising in the party but has no legislative experience.Gurudas DasguptaGURUDAS DASGUPTA: Party's Lok Sabha leader is known for trade unionism than political activism. Yet to find full acceptability in the CPI.Doraiswamy RajaDORAISWAMY RAJA: Rose from students politics in Tamil Nadu to the party's central secretariat through organisational activities. Sudhakar ReddySUDHAKAR REDDY: MP from Nalgonda. Was Andhra Pradesh unit secretary from 1998 to 2005. Has to understand Hindi belt politics better. The 41-year-old CPI(M) can boast of a membership of over eight lakh. The CPI's labour wing the All-India Trade Unions Congress (AITUC), the country's oldest trade union, too has taken severe beating from the Marxist outfit Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU).The trade union militancy that AITUC used to practice in the 1920s in the jute mills of Mumbai has long ago been made redundant by the negotiating tactics of CITU. "The mobilisation of workers at the Honda Motor factory in Gurgaon in July this year shows that AITUC is very active," says CPI Lok Sabha leader and AITUC General Secretary Gurudas Dasgupta.Vice-president of the party's National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW) Amarjeet Kaur concedes that much focus has been on keeping the CPI politically active. "Although I would say that more women will eventually come to the party it is imperative to have awareness programmes among economically backward women," adds Kaur. The decline in curiosity about the CPI among the youth and women appears to have followed a national pattern. From the '60s up to the mid '80s, the Communist movement witnessed eager participation of both sections. But once economic liberalisation was rolled out in the early '90s, younger people in particular lost interest in the Left.Indira Gandhi had said Marxism has no place in Indian politics when she is said to have sensed a threat from the CPI(M) in West Bengal and Kerala. Her assertions had come after the unified communist party's great split in 1964. Despite the fact that the Congress and Marxists have been in a relationship of convenience, the CPI has had to take the blame for its open support to the Congress. Bardhan lists "endorsing the Emergency" by his party under the leadership of Sripad Amrit Dange as the worst possible blunder of the CPI. "Supporting the Emergency was a blunder. The CPI had misjudged the situation then. But we corrected ourselves thereafter," says he. Sitting in the CPI headquarters in Ajoy Bhawan, he often thinks of the party's life after him, the contours of a socialist India. This may be Bardhan's last fantasy.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Dec 19, 2005 00:00 IST--- ENDS ---

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CPI approaches political irrelevance as it faces electoral debacles, lacklustre leadership

Eighty years in existence and the CPI is fast approaching political irrelevance with electoral debacles and a lack lustre leadership that is ill-equipped to revive the party's fortunes.

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