Communists have a bizarre love affair with old age. This situation leads to the transformation of communist parties into geriatric wards of hospitals. It is therefore a surprise that Mr Jyoti Basu and Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet have both offered to step down from the politburo, the highest decision-making body of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Both Mr Basu and Mr Singh are well past the age of pursuing active politics. Mr Basu?s health is also failing. It should also be remembered that in their youth both the comrades went through rough times as they were party workers who had to endure hardship and sacrifice. It is a wonder that they have been at the service of the party of their choice for such a long time. It could not have been an easy decision for either of them since neither knew of a life outside the party. It is significant that they have opted only to leave the politburo but not the party. The red card will remain their lifeline. There is something touching in such shows of loyalty among old men.

In the offer made by Mr Basu and Mr Singh can be read the signs of changing times. A change of guard is in the offing within the CPI(M). For some time now, Mr Prakash Karat and Mr Sitaram Yechuri have been functioning as the CPI(M)?s public face. By the standards set by communist parties, Messrs Karat and Yechuri are really young: the former is touching sixty and the latter is on the right side of fifty. Not since Nikolai Bukharin, who was barely out of his teens when he came on to the politburo of the Bolshevik Party under Lenin, has a communist of such youth wielded so much power. Even in West Bengal, a group of relatively young comrades run the party and the Left Front government. Youth ? the word is used here strictly in the context of the history of communist parties ? at the helm of affairs is one explanation of the openness to non-communist ideas within the CPI(M). Younger people tend to be less hide-bound than those who are old. An older generation would probably have found it a little more embarrassing than Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to welcome multinationals. It remains to be seen if the CPI(M) leadership has the grace to thank Mr Basu and Mr Singh for their sterling service to the cause and to accede to their requests. Weary men lack the fire in their blood to be good comrades.