Two decades after disintegration of Soviet Union and East European Socialist Bloc, the CPI (M) has tacitly admitted that the root cause for the debacle of socialism lies in the inadequacy of the system. While reiterating its earlier position that there was incorrect estimations leading to a poor understanding of the threat to socialism from within and without, the CPI(M) admitted that if the socialism as a political system was to be revitalized in the 21st century, it had to strengthen the democratic rights and civil liberties of the people. The party has on Monday released its draft document on ideological issues public on Monday inviting public debate on it.
Though the document refrained from uttering any negative words against the lack of democracy and absence of civil liberties in the erstwhile socialist countries, more so in Stalin’s Soviet Union, its declaration that any future socialist system would lay stress on democracy, democratic rights and civil liberties makes it abundantly clear that finally it had come to terms with the past.
Yet, the document falls short of the expectations that after the decline of the Left movement in India, there would be serious soul searching within the party and they would reexamine their ideological thinking in on Monday’s context.
The CPI (M) still explains their understanding of Socialism as a system, where the State would be led by the working class, and the economy will be guided by central planning and dominating role would be given to the socialist form of production, but other forms like collective, cooperative etc will coexist along with the market. But in the same breath it anxiously observes that in China in the last two decades there had been phenomenal growth of private sector, which “by 2005 accounted for 50 per cent of the value added in the industrial sector”.
China has more billionaires on Monday than in any other country other than the United States of America, but the workers’ wages in national income fell dramatically from 53 per cent to just 40 per cent of GDP. At the same time, the document noted that with the continued economic growth in that country, rural poverty has come down substantially. But what disturbed the Indian Left most is the fact that since 2002 a number of entrepreneurs and businessmen have joined the Chinese Communist Party and the party’s composition is changing. Apprehensive of the path the Chinese Communists have taken the CPI (M) commented that “How these contradictions are dealt with and how they are resolved will determine the future course in China.”
In the recent rise of identity politics the CPI (M) has seen a threat to their politics. Admitting that the identity politics as opposed to class politics, as based on race, ethnicity, religion, caste or gender, had permeated into Indian society, the party rejected this and put stress on taking up a combination of class issues and social questions to counter it. At the same time it had reiterated its opposition to the demands for separate states like Telengana, Darjeeling on regional and ethnic lines.