C for... : Karat, Basu

Calcutta, Jan. 7: Prakash Karat has reaffirmed the CPM line of working within the “capitalist system” to undertake industrialisation, defending the statements of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Jyoti Basu and ticking off allies which saw red.

The CPM general secretary also asked restive allies like the RSP why they chose to work within the capitalist system all these years.

“Working within the capitalist system, facing a situation where the central government imposes neo-liberal policies, the Left-led governments have to undertake industrialisation and economic development in such a manner where the interests of the workers and the poorer sections are protected,’’ Karat said in a statement today.

The statement was issued in Delhi in response to suggestions within and outside the Left Front that the CPM had waved farewell to socialism.

Basu had said last week that “our party believes in socialism but it is still far away. Being a state in the Indian Union, is it possible for us to bring in socialism?” The veteran had made the comment while defending chief minister Bhattacharjee’s earlier assertion that private capital was needed for industrialisation.

Karat elaborated on the theme today. “Only those ignorant of the programme of the CPM can talk of the party saying ‘goodbye to socialism and welcome to capitalism’.”

“The CPM’s goal is for the setting up of a people’s democracy, which is a step towards the eventual goal towards socialism. This, as Jyoti Basu said, cannot be done by the three state governments ruled by the Left. The advance to socialism will be realisable only after the Left and democratic forces are strong enough to build an alternative at the national level,” Karat said.

The CPM general secretary’s statement coincided with a speech by Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan, an old-school communist, who expressed the hope that “capitalism will be uprooted by socialism”.

But Karat’s comments seem to be aimed at allies such as the RSP which he singled out for the withering question. “Unlike the CPM, the RSP has declared socialism to be its immediate goal. But one may ask why the RSP has been, in all these years of being in Left-led state governments, working to implement some reforms and welfare measures within the capitalist system?”

RSP leaders held a closed-door meeting this evening with Forward Bloc, a recalcitrant front ally that had decided to contest the Bengal panchayat polls on its own.

RSP leader and state PWD leader Kshiti Goswami told a meeting that Basu’s endorsement of the chief minister’s views was “a betrayal of all the ideals that the Left Front held dear since its formation 30 years ago”.

“It’s becoming difficult to stay together as the ideological differences have become fundamental. It is high time to think of alternative Left unity,’’ added Goswami, who had threatened to resign from the ministry after the Nandigram recapture but chose to stay on eventually.