A V Rajwade: Diary of a secular leftist

WORLD MONEY/ The virtues of modern-day socialism

Having just gone through the ritual of worshipping the goddess of wealth on Laxmi Puja day (only to pacify my wife, mind you), I thought it was a good time to remind myself of the virtues of socialism.

One recent event that emphasised these virtues, was a stay at the India International Centre (IIC) in New Delhi, which, as it happens, is adjacent to the offices of those worshippers of Mammon "" the Bretton Woods twins.

The IIC provides all the comforts of a five-star hotel, with rooms that cost a quarter, food that costs a fifth and liquor that costs a 10th: this only shows how much those capitalists like the Oberois and Tatas, and multinationals like ITC exploit us.

No wonder, the IIC is a favourite haunt of my socialist colleagues and mentors "" former Prime Minister Gujral is/was a regular.

He does not have what another leftist prime minister, Chandrashekhar, has: an air-conditioned Ashram in Bhondsi "" an ideal place for thinking deeply about the plight of the poor! No member of the "hoi polloi" is allowed to disturb the peace of IIC or the Ashram. Critics may crib at the exclusivity of IIC membership, of its being elitist.

But they forget that we leftists like our consumption, but not its becoming conspicuous. (We are not pseudo-socialists like Amar Singh, who threw a huge party at the Taj some time ago to celebrate his grandchild's birthday. I, too, went but only in the interests of the solidarity of the secular forces.)

One of the greater virtues of socialism is that I and my fellow socialists can enjoy, in Delhi, air-conditioned three bedroom houses "" as members of Parliament, as faculty members of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, or any one of the umpteen institutes and councils "" at little cost.

Such a convenience really for focusing on the poor, arguing about reforms with a human face, thinking of yet another job-creation scheme for the comrades, receiving delegations of representatives of the toiling workers in public sector undertakings (PSUs), sympathising with their anti-privatisation views, and issuing supportive statements.

Politicians, academics, workers all supported by, and supporters of a pro-poor socialist state. It gives one such great inner satisfaction. That is why my leftist colleagues take their duty of parliamentary oversight of PSUs so seriously: they like to miss no opportunity of visiting PSUs as members of parliamentary committees.

And the PSUs love them: insist on their travelling in business class, accommodate them in five-star hotels, throw parties and shower gifts on them. The other day my friend...went to the Andamans for a week in connection with a PSU: next year, I am told, it is going to be Lakshadweep.

But on the topic of the appointment of our comrades on various bodies, committees and councils, hats off to comrade Surjeet (peace be with him). He has given a shock to those who thought that purges ended with Stalinist Russia, by drawing up a list of people appointed by the communal forces, for removal "" and for replacement by ideologically-correct and secular people.

And what more secular person than Sharmila Tagore could he have found to replace Kher. Now, she is not quite socialist "" but you cannot always get everything, can you?

Come to think of it, so many crorepatis are flocking to the secular socialist banner. In the recent elections in Maharashtra, half the candidates of the secular alliance, which also swears by pro-poor leftist policies, were crorepatis.

This proves the superiority and growing popularly of socialism even among the rich. Can there be more tangible evidence of our success?

But to come back to our principled stands on various issues, I must say comrade Surjeet is playing his cards so well. After all, we have barely 10 per cent of the MPs, but we have acquired veto power on all policy issues "" foreign direct investment (FDI), privatisation, guaranteed jobs, labour law reform and so on.

In fact, in the pursuit of our principled stands, we are always ready to make sacrifices: we do not mind if lakhs of villages have no water supply or schools or roads for want of resources with the government, but this will not tempt us to generate the resources by sacrificing the interests of the working class by privatisation or sale of PSUs.

Nor do we hesitate to sacrifice millions of potential jobs in the interest of protecting lakhs of existing ones. Comrade Surjeet has made people afraid of us; made them forget that we have little influence beyond Bengal and Kerala; that in Bengal, where we are in power, we do everything that we criticise here in Delhi; that even as we guard India's sovereignty from FDI, our own ideology is imported.

Recently, our secular/leftist credentials were tested on the issue of Bangladeshis in India. That fool of a minister even admitted in Parliament that such illegal immigrants are 1.2 crore. What nonsense? They are economic migrants, coming to make their fortunes in our great country.

We may have an army of unemployed, not enough resources to provide basic social services like drinking water and education to our poor, but should we, therefore, deny entry to economic migrants? Surely our heart is bigger? We should welcome them like the Statue of Liberty in New York has beckoned immigrants for a couple of hundred years.

Email: avrco@vsnl.com