At a time when attempts are being made to forge alliances and understanding among the opposition parties, Congress’s move to poach on friendly parties has taken many of them by surprise. The move has led to much heartburn among the Left parties, especially the CPI. Will these affect the attempts to forge national and regional level alliances? Would such alliances and understandings have the required trust? In an interview with THE WEEK, CPI general secretary D. Raja talked about these and also how the opposition parties should be conducting themselves. Excerpts:
Q/ Congress and CPI have a sort of political affinity, except in Kerala. So, how do you view the Kanhaiya Kumar episode?
A/ What exactly transpired between the Congress leadership and the particular individual, I cannot say now. Our young leader, who was a member of the national executive, quitting the party and joining Congress exposes the fact that he does not have the ideological and political commitment. It also shows he must be having personal ambitions and aspirations.
Rahul Gandhi should have thought of the implications of the move; how it is going to affect the relationship between Congress and CPI. What is his role in this conspiracy? What is this political culture? He must explain.
Q/ Were you aware that Kumar was in touch with Congress leaders?
A/ Personally, I was not aware of it. In public life, people come and meet. But whether there was any serious discussion, I can't say. One can't doubt his own colleague or comrade. He was not straightforward and truthful to the party. That is the conclusion I have come to after this incident. That is why I call it betrayal. Speculations were going on. On behalf of the party, I denied. But he did not deny the speculations. Those created doubts.
Q/ A member of your party's top most committee leaving this way shows a lack of ideological consciousness.
A/ We have more than six lakh members. We instil ideological and political education to our cadres. All through the difficulties and struggles, the party stands, keeping its flag high because of those cadres, because of their conviction that, if not today, one day the red flag will emerge as a force to reckon with in the Indian power structure. The party has been fighting for a casteless, classless society, and against patriarchy. Our cadres have been given such an education by which their convictions can be strengthened. There can be one or two elements who come and desert the party. Without ideology, how can a Communist party survive?
Q/ Kumar emerged as a national leader at an early age, thanks to a situation created by the BJP. Was it because he didn’t have enough space to grow within the CPI that he had to look for another option?
A/ What is the space? The party has a structure. National executive is the highest structure. He was promoted directly to the national executive. He was not a branch secretary or mandal secretary or district secretary or state secretary. He was directly promoted considering the factors you have mentioned. He was made a candidate in the Lok Sabha elections. It was the party which organised the campaign projecting him, and protected him from the onslaught of the BJP-RSS combine.
Q/ Did you try to reach out to Kumar when you heard he was going to join the Congress?
A/ I reached out to him. Other leaders also did. I persuaded him to issue a denial. People were asking me - as party you are denying, what about the concerned person? I told him several times to do it so that there is an end to the speculation. He didn’t want to do it. If, despite persuasion, he was not doing so, it means he was having a different line of thinking. We gave him enough opportunity; I was persuading till the end. I did not want to doubt my own comrade, so I did not say anything till he quit and joined Congress. He expelled himself from the party; party has not expelled him.
Q/ When a comrade does not pay heed to a demand made by the party general secretary, it is indiscipline. Why didn’t you take any action against him?
A/ It is indiscipline, but we had to give time also to young comrades to think over and correct themselves. That is what we did. We gave adequate time. We tried our best. He had no commitment; any cause other than his ambitions and aspirations. As a Communist party, we don’t promote personality cults.
Q/ Now, Kumar is saying only Congress can save the country.
A/ That is his understanding. He also said metaphorically that when the ship sinks, what will happen to boats. He must understand when the ship sinks, boats are used to save the people.
Q/ Considering the kind of understanding between the mainstream Left parties and Congress, was it proper on the part of the latter to offer him space?
A/ It is for Congress to do some introspection. I don’t want to get into that debate. That shows the political maturity of the Congress party, their understanding of how to maintain working relationship with other likeminded parties. Because of snatching one comrade from us, or one comrade going and joining them, I am not bothered; my party will survive, my party will move forward. Even before this person came into our fold, the party was there fighting for its causes. Let Congress justify what they are doing.
Q/ Will this episode affect the working relationship between CPI and Congress?
A/ Let us see what is going to emerge in the coming days. Let us see how the Congress is going use these people.
Q/ You have a good rapport with the Congress leaders, especially Sonia Gandhi and Rahul. Has this incident pained you?
A/ Definitely, it pains me. The Congress leadership also didn’t give me any indication. Everything was done in a secretive and conspiratorial way. It is for Congress to justify how it functions.
Q/ Wasn’t it a bit strange that Jignesh Mewani announced that Kumar is joining the Congress?
A/ It embarrassed me. I felt ashamed. Somebody taking the name of one of my comrades, one of our leaders and saying they are joining Congress. There was a time when Jignesh felt that Gujarat Bhawan in Delhi was unsafe for him to stay. He came to me and said, people have told him that that place is unsafe for him. He wanted to stay in Ajoy Bhawan, our party headquarters. I said you are welcome. We gave him food and shelter. I am sure he knows the meaning of ‘biting the hand that feeds you’. In this case, those hands which gave shelter and food.
Q/ People say Kumar joining the Congress is part of the strategy advised by Prashant Kishor.
A/ That is their level. How it is going to help the Congress, let us wait and see. What is happening in Punjab, Chhattisgarh or Kerala? Let us see how they are going to save themselves. The Left will stand up, the CPI has seen many turbulences, many betrayals, but CPI has not died. I haven’t met Prashant Kishor. I keep reading about him. What is his role, I can’t say. Psephology or technology alone cannot help in winning the hearts and minds of the people.
Q/ How do you look at the prevailing political situation in the country?
A/ The situation is very challenging. The country is in multiple crises. Economy is in a shambles. Parliament is becoming increasingly redundant. If Parliament becomes redundant, it is end of democracy. That is why people keep talking about the electoral autocracy. Now, BJP-RSS combine has become aggressive in pursuing its agenda. That is why there is a sinister design to subvert the Constitution, subvert the democratic polity of the country. There is no place for dissent, which is an essential part of our democracy. If somebody raises voice against the government, questions policies, they are slapped with sedition charges, called anti-nationals, urban Naxals or Maoists.
Q/ But aren't things looking up on the economic front?
A/ BJP-RSS is committed to serve the interests of corporate houses and help them in all possible ways to loot the people of the country. That way one can conclude this government represents corporate houses, and crony capitalism prevails. The way they treat the agitating farmers, trade unions – those are all indications of how ruthless and anti-farmer, anti-worker the government has become. But there is hope since, during this period, workers and farmers have come together. The farmers agitation should not be treated as any other agitation. It is an unprecedented popular movement in post-independent India.
Q/ Did you expect anything better or different when Narendra Modi came to power?
A/ We knew that BJP is the political wing of RSS whose ideology is a communal fascist one. So, the ideological, political and electoral struggle must be intensified and there is a need to present the alternate vision of India. Now, BJP-RSS use technology and media – both social and traditional media - to condition and hijack the thinking of the people. There it becomes imperative on the part of the Left and other democratic parties to reach out to the people and expose the BJP-RSS combine.
Q/ Are there programmes chalked out?
A/ Just talking is not enough; one should fight on the streets and inside Parliament against the neo-liberal policies pursued by the government. Left parties are clear in their understanding. The other secular parties should also rework their strategies and revise some of their policies. For instance, when the public sector is being dismantled and all national assets are being sold out to crony capitalists like Adanis and Ambanis, Congress cannot go on saying we are not opposed to privatisation – Chidambaram said we are opposed to the way it is privatised. Congress has to get back to Nehruvian economic policies. So, it is an ideological question.
Q/ Those are ideological issues. What about electoral understanding?
A/ When parties come together on issues then they will have to think of electoral understanding. Parties must be mutually accommodative, must have mutual trust. 2024 will be a crucial election in India. But, before that, in 2022, we have election in UP, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa, Gujarat. Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur are important elections. In Gujarat, the government is already becoming unpopular. In UP too, the government is becoming unpopular. How to take on these governments? It is a question of electoral understanding which requires trust and accommodation among parties. How it is going to emerge, we will have to wait and see.
Q/ Now the BJP is setting the agenda even for opposition parties. These parties are forced to adopt tactics similar to that of the BJP. In Delhi, AAP has introduced patriotism in the school curriculum. Rahul Gandhi has to visit religious places and parties have to use religious symbols.
A/ All this means, if we have to fight BJP-RSS, we have to pursue an alternate path and present an alternate vision to the people. How can we do it? We must trust the people, connect with the people and must expose how dangerous the BJP-RSS combine is, how detrimental they are to the country and its democratic values.
Q/ But opposition unity efforts keep failing. How much trust or understanding is practised by the main party, Congress?
A/ When we keep fighting for the country and its future, there should be ideological, political understanding and clarity. Congress is, as of now, a centrist party. Whether they are in government or not, they have pan-Indian presence. But they must think over their ideological understanding. No party can take a position that ideology does not matter. It means you will compromise with right-wing ideology at least in practice. That is what we witness with some parties, like AAP and even a section of the Congress party. After all, ours is a country with tremendous diversities and there are religions – Modi has no hesitation to go and participate in bhoomi puja, thereby declaring one particular religion as the official religion. But other democratic political parties cannot do that. We must see that we stand firm on secular values, neutral to all religions, respecting all faiths people follow.
Q/ We see people leaving Congress, joining BJP and gaining positions. Some others are joining TMC and saying only Mamata Banerjee has the calibre to fight Modi.
A/ The centrist parties may not take left-of-centre position. But they should not take the right-of-centre position either. At least, they should try to remain centrist. Now, this neo liberalism has been destroying all the human values, family values, social values. As a human being, one should have concern and care for fellow human beings, love and compassion. Where are those values? Because these values have gone, selfishness, individualism and positions at a given point of time, drive people. They don’t care for ideologies, or political commitment. They look for some position or power at the given point of time. That is why some youngsters are leaving Congress and joining BJP or BJP people are joining TMC. During the time of Atal Behari Vajpayee and L.K. Advani, BJP called itself the party with a difference. What is the difference now?
Q/ Are you confident about the ability of the Congress's current leadership to lead a formidable opposition?
A/ What is happening today in Punjab and other states, like Kerala? Congress leaders are leaving mainly because of their internal problems. It shows that Congress is passing through an internal turmoil. How Congress is going to overcome this and unite itself? Not only the unity of other parties, but it itself needs to unite. It should have that ideological orientation.
Sonia Gandhi is one of the senior leaders of the country today. She has been there for a long time in the decision-making process. She has that experience, maturity. Rahul Gandhi is emerging. Time will prove how capable and efficient he is in running the party and in working with other parties.