At the heart of all issues concerning morality and ethics is the problem of ends and means. Communism, or that part of it which makes gestures towards philosophy, has brushed aside the problem of ends and means. It has claimed that attaining the goals of revolution and a classless society justifies the means that are adopted by a communist party. Hence, communists all over the world have accepted without any pangs of conscience the violence deployed by Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and so on. The taking of human lives, the destruction of churches, the use of torture on a gigantic scale and the general sacrifice of all scruples at the altar of the party have all been seen as necessary for attaining the ultimate, if elusive, goal. It is thus surprising to learn that the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is concerned about the perceptible decline in moral standards among the comrades. At the ongoing congress of the CPI(M), the party has taken note of certain unwelcome tendencies within it: people joining the party to further their careers, comrades taking to obscurantist practices, their ignorance about the party?s ideological positions, propensity to seek power rather than further ideology and so on. These tendencies were most noticeable in West Bengal and Kerala where the party has enjoyed political power and where the party?s membership base is growing.

What is most noteworthy is the fact that it has taken the CPI(M) so long to wake up to this phenomenon. Most CPI(M)-watchers who do not have party blinkers on could pick out these developments and their dimensions. It is also surprising that the CPI(M) leadership assumed that it would remain immune from the processes of history. The taste of political power, history shows, inevitably brings in its wake corruption and moral degradation. The comrades do not have very far to look. They have only to read the latest findings about the life of Stalin and of his coterie of sycophants. Or the life of Mao Zedong, when he was the great helmsman of China. The comrades need to read these books with an open mind and not dismiss them, as they are prone to do, as ?anti-communist propaganda?. Communists, because they are communists and because they are without any moral and ethical armour, need to be aware of the realities of political power and its corrosive impact.

In West Bengal, the problem is acute because the CPI(M) has been in power for nearly three decades. Without any opposition, it has become smug and shameless in its use of power to protect and further its own political interests. In this respect, it is no better or no worse than any other Indian political party. The party leadership is free from financial corruption, but down the line it is not possible to assert such a claim. The absence of morality and ethics has spread like cancer and it is doubtful if the party has the wherewithal to even begin analysing the disease.