Ideological dilemma Kills CPIM stung with garvest leadership crisis. Discredited Prakash Karat Elected General secretary Once again!
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams, chapter 762
Palash Biswas
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Indian Communist movement never did have any direction. It ran blind to achiee false destination and lost in illusion devoid of imagination. It did speak of Ideology and Class Struggle. It did train its cadres for revolution. Nothing happened except purple spans of getting the helms of state Power in states like Bengal, kerala and Tripura where it faces serious challenges. Neo Liberal Policies undermined the Indian nation and its Economy as well as Democratic struture. The Communist movement hitherto led by CPIM had been always confused to address the crisis faced by the Nation and its Peoel/ The Communist Movement never did work to liberate the Excluded Majority masses and compromised at every step to sustain the Hegemony Rule. Mamata Banerjee is not an individual. She is a force personafied which represents all the Anti Communist Elements. The party is more confused underestimating her rise and strength. Ironically, the party learnt Nothing and entrapped it with yet another span of misleading leadership.
A string of electoral defeats in the past two years has forced the CPM to ring in major changes at the party congress in Kozihkode on Friday. The party is contemplating living in harmony with non-Marxist bedfellows to suit the times when multi-party democracy and coalition governments rule.
The party on Friday adopted the review report and political resolution presented by general secretary Prakash Karat, seeking to forge a Left democratic alternative against the 'neo-liberal' policies of Congress party and 'communal' agenda pursued by BJP. Two delegates from Andhra Pradesh opposed certain clauses in the draft and proposed amendments, party sources said.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Congress on Monday re-elected Prakash Karat at its general secretary for his third consecutive term, a day after it amended the Constitution to set a three-term limit for the post and party Secretaries at various levels.
Mr. Karat, who is serving in the capacity since his election at delhi in 2005, comes in with a team of 14 other Polit Bureau members that has three new comers in Centre for Trade Union president A.K. Padmanabhan, Kerala legislator M.A Baby and Leader of the Opposition in West Bengal Assembly, Surjya Kanta Mishra.
Addressing the closing session Mr. Karat said the 20th Congress will open a new chapter for the communists, the Left movement and Left and Democratic alternative in the country.
Acknowledging that the debate and discussions during the past five days here would strengthen the party, he said it also made the leadership conscious of the fact that they have a ``major and heavy'' responsibility to take forward the political, ideological and organisational tasks identified in the meeting.
Besides Mr. Karat and three new members, the newly elected Polit Bureau includes S. Ramachandran Pillai, Sitaram Yechury, Biman Basu, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Pinarayi Vijayana, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, K. Vardha Rajan, B.V. Raghavulu, Brinda Karat, Nirupam Sen and Kodiyeri Balakirhsnan.
Setting aside suggestions that CPI(M) has rejected the Chinese model and embraced the Latin American path in its ideological positioning, party politburo member Sitaram Yechury said the path of revolution and social transformation in the country would be based on "concrete Indian conditions." The CPI-M's ongoing Congress adopted the ideological resolution presented by politburo member Sitaram Yechury to meet the challenges of changing times.
The resolution seeks to forge a third political alternative in the country against the "neo-liberal" reforms of Congress and "communalist" agenda of BJP.
While critically analysing the deficiencies in socialist countries which had charted a course of economic reforms to meet the challenges thrown up by "imperialist globalisation", the document also rejects the theory of "identity politics" based on caste, religion and ethnicity.
Briefing reporters on the day's proceedings at the party's 20th Congress here, politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai said one delegate opposed the resolution, while three others abstained. He did not give the reasons for the abstention and opposite vote.
"There was broad agreement at the Congress on the overall content of the draft ideological document," Pillai said.
Denying reports that the CPI-M's political resolution, adopted by the Congress on April 5, was later corrected to leave the the option for a third front open, Pillai said the party's declared stand was that in the present situation, there was no scope for a third front.
"Elections may come and we will take appropriate decisions on electoral adjustments with regional parties at that time. At the moment, there is no idea of a programme-based third front," he said.
Pillai, who presented the organisational report at the Congress last evening, said the CPI-M considered electoral setbacks in West Bengal and Kerala as only one of the indicators while assessing its growth and expansion.
The party had learnt from the mistakes it committed in these states and would take remedial action. "However, the party does not assess its growth based solely on electoral gains," he said.
CPI-M will attempt to overcome the shortcomings and weaknesses that led to its electoral debacle, he said.
Former Kerala chief minister and now the opposition leader in the state assembly, Achuthanandan was not elected to the decision-making politburo. But Kerala's M.A. Baby, 58, made it.
Former West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who has avoided almost all recent CPI-M leadership meetings, was, however, re-elected to the politburo.
Achuthanandan was booted out of the politburo in 2009 for constantly feuding with the Kerala's powerful state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
Achuthanandan, however, remains a member of the central committee, which has the power to veto politburo decisions.
The new politburo and central committee were named Monday on the final day of the CPI-M's 20th party congress.
There was speculation that the Myanmar-born Karat, whose leadership coincided with the end of 34 years of Left rule in West Bengal, could be replaced. But that did not happen.
Speaking on the occasion, Karat said: "Only a Left and democratic alternative can replace the present set up."
The 15-member politburo has three new faces and includes veteran trade union leader A.K. Padmanabhan from Tamil Nadu, Suryakanta Misra from West Bengal and Baby.
Misra now heads the Left bloc in the West Bengal assembly.
"I have nothing to say," said Achuthanandan as he came out of the venue.
The 89-member central committee includes 13 new faces and has former CPI-M legislator K.K. Shailaja. Two seats have been left vacant.
Benoy Konar was appointed the new Control Commission chairman.
"Not at all" was Yechury's answer when a question was put to him on the issue at the daily briefing at the venue of the 20th Congress of the CPI-M here.
The discussion on the ideological document is progressing at the Congress.
"There is no question of taking a position that one path is right and the other is wrong. We have just analysed the experiences in China, Cuba, Latin America and South Africa to learn what is relevant so that we can develop our own movement," he said.
Yechury said China has become the second largest economy in the world.
"China is thriving. Living standards have improved there. But there are also deficiencies which a socialist country should not have. They are trying to resolve this," he said.
He said the main thrust of the ideological document, presented by him at the Congress, was on the challenges thrown by "imperialist globalisation" across the world in the last two decades and how to strengthen the political alternative in India to counter the challenges.
Yechury said the very birth of CPI(M) was based on its stand that the path of revolution or social transformation in the country would be based on the Indian path and not by imitating Russian or Chinese models.
"And that led to the three-way division of Communist parties in India," he said.
"Global capitalism was facing a crisis of the worst kind with increasing economic inequalities and jobless growth reported from many countries", he said adding "we are looking into issues to be resolved in Indian conditions for which the Left democratic alternative will be strengthened," he said.
Yechury said CPI(M) would strive for transition from capitalism to socialism "based on people's will and through peaceful means".
Asked whether "identity politics" based on caste and ethnicity had marginalised the Left in north Indian states, he said CPI(M) was for strengthening the positives of "identity politics" and combating the negatives.
As for ethnicity, there was a genuine sense of alienation and discontentment among some sections but the movement against oppression was being used for "disruptive" purposes, he said.
In caste-based formations also, there should be distinction between revolt against oppression and certain caste leaders are using the situation for political expediency.
A total of 27 delegates had taken part in the discussion so far, Yechury said. The resolution would be adopted after his reply tomorrow.
The draft ideological document, presented by Yechury, says "negative tendencies" like economic inequalities,unemployment, corruption and nepotism have surfaced in socialist countries, including China, which have embarked on a course of reforms to meet the challenges of present-day world realities.
"Orthodox Marxists used to believe that one-party rule was mandatory to achieve socialism. But we have now realised that multi-party democracy is here to stay and we will have to adapt ourselves comfortably with this system. For this, we need to acknowledge the struggle made by several regional and democratic parties and will have to join hands with them to strengthen the Left democratic movement in the country," a senior CPM central committee member told ET on Friday over phone from Kozhikode where the 20th party congress is being held.
Since 2009, the Marxists have been passing through a difficult phase. Last year, the party lost West Bengal after 34 years of rule as well as Kerala. This year the party couldn't manage to win even a single seat in the recent assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and Manipur. CPM's growth in the Hindi-speaking belt is way below expectations. All these issues came up on Friday during discussions on the draft political resolution which was presented before the party congress by Sitaram Yechuri.
A number of delegates from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal felt that the decision to withdraw support to the first UPA government on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal was unwise and the party had to pay a heavy price for that.
"We could not convince the people about the bad impacts of Indo-US nuclear deal. The issue was critical and our leadership also failed to prepare strong campaign material on the basis of which we could convince people about the negative impacts of the deal," CPM leader from West Bengal Ashok Bhattacharjee told the party congress.
As the CPM's 20th Party Congress in Kozhikode is nearing its close, party general secretary Prakash Karat has undoubtedly emerged a rejuvenated leader reaffirming his position as the helmsman of the party.Athul Lal A G reports for IBN Live.
The leader of the Stalinist party who was under fire in the run-up to the party congress for miserably failing to capitalise on the historic Left-win in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls, the flawed approach towards the nuclear deal and the subsequent assembly election rout in West Bengal has effectively managed to spin the party's failures as the collective responsibility of the politburo (PB) and the central committee (CC).
Ever since the Left withdrew its support to the UPA-I, Karat has been under severe criticism from the West Bengal cadre for fatally uniting the rival parties -- Congress and Trinamool Congress -- in West Bengal which, according to them, has led to the Assembly election fiasco.
The WB unit attributed the shocking defeat of the party to the weak central leadership and its inability to take political decisions, and demanded a complete leadership change at the national level. However, the Party Congress has put to rest all speculations that the leadership was plagued with division and rift over the issue. In spite of the fact that Karat had to face the brunt of attack, he managed to get the decision endorsed in the party congress.
More importantly, the discussion on the political resolution at the party congress even noted that the CPM was late to act against the nuclear deal and should have withdrawn its support to UPA-I much earlier. Besides, after losing power the West Bengal cadre became so weak that it could hardly stick on to its demand for a change in the national leadership. Political experts feel that the CPM central leadership might have countered the anti-Karat WB unit with the impressive show by the Kerala CPM unit in the Assembly elections.
"In Kerala, the LDF falling short of a majority by three seats cannot be seen as a rejection of the LDF Government and its policies. The working people actually supported the CPM and the LDF in substantial measure," says the political resolution.
Known for his non-compromising attitude, Karat could bring the proposal to amend the CPM's constitution to limit the terms of the general secretary and secretaries at the state, district and intermediate levels for not more than three, considering the fact that party leadership at various levels has become more like an establishment.
In a way, however, Karat has ensured his position in the party. Karat, who has completed two terms as the general secretary, is eligible to continue even if that amendment is passed and the party appears weak to take a gamble at this juncture.
Even as some politicians brand Karat as the 'Indian Stalin', many political observers believe that he could be better termed as a 'democratic communist' with less political instincts. "Karat could not be compared to Stalin as he believes in following a democratic approach. He should be a Stalinist if the decisions of the central leadership be workable," notes political observer N M Pearson.
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/karat-emerges-stronger-in-cpm/247136-60-116.html
CPI(M) deliberates on native socialism model
K. V. PRASADSHARE · COMMENT (5) · PRINT · T+
PTICPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and party leaders Biman Bose, Manik Sarkar and Sitaram Yechury at the 20th party congress in Kozhikode on Saturday.
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Focus is on strengthening political alternative, says Yechury
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday began attending to the task of acquiring greater clarity on ideological issues and coming up with a socialism model rooted in Indian conditions and not replicated from any system practised in other countries.
Having studied systems in China, Russia, North Korea, South Africa, Cuba, Venezuela and drawing lessons from them, the CPI(M) prepared a draft resolution that would come up for vote at the ongoing party congress here on Sunday.
"We need socialism for India not based on conditions in Russia or China… we are learning from their experience and applying what is relevant to Indian conditions. We are not saying their [other countries] path is right or wrong…the birth of the CPI(M) is based on the major issue of path of revision of socialist trend …," Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told the media.
Elaborating on the thrust of the resolution that he moved before the congress, Mr. Yechury said it took stock of developments in the world over the last two decades, interpreted the current global challenges and how various countries were meeting them.
POLITICAL ALTERNATIVE
"Focus is on how to strengthen the political alternative in India. The objective is to transform the situation and the subjective situation is to have a political alternative to replace the capitalist [form]."
He said the current economic crisis showed that the capitalist approach was not capable of overcoming it but was leading from one crisis to another. Globalisation was leading to inequality with the International Labour Organisation terming it 'jobless growth.'
For instance, he said, loss of purchasing power had led to a problem — if goods produced were not sold, capitalists would suffer, and they offered cheap credit that resulted in a sub-prime crisis in the United States. Bailout by the government was for those financial giants who caused the economic meltdown.
"From corporate insolvency [it led to] to sovereign insolvency," Mr. Yechury said, pointing out that the crisis in Europe, which began in Greece, was seeing more countries being drawn in and to overcome sovereign crisis, austerity measures were being applied in the form of wage cuts for the working class with longer hours of work.
TERM LIMIT
The meeting will also deliberate on an important amendment to the party Constitution that seeks to introduce a three-term limit for all secretaries, including general secretary. The amendment when carried would mean that all those holding the post, including Prakash Karat, cannot continue beyond three terms. Each term lasts normally three years, the period between two party congresses.
Mr. Karat was elected in 2005 at the New Delhi congress and re-elected at Coimbatore three years later. In view of the Assembly elections in Kerala and West Bengal, the party postponed the 20 edition of the congress to this year.
Responding to questions on fixing responsibility for electoral reverses, the Polit Bureau member said the organisation practised "collective functioning and individual responsibility."
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3291327.ece
Prakash Karat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia  * | This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by addingreliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourcedmust be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (September 2011) |
| Prakash Karat | |
| * | |
| Prakash Karat | |
| General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) | |
| Assumed office 2005 | |
| Preceded by | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 7 February 1948 (age 64) |
| Political party | |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Residence | |
| As of January 27, 2007 Source: [1] |
Prakash Karat (Malayalam: പ്രകാശ് കാരാട്ട് ), born on February 7, 1948 in Letpadan, Burma is a communist politician in India and the current General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) since 2005.[1][2][3]
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[edit]Education and early career
Prakash Karat was born in Letpadan, Burma on February 7, 1948. His father worked in the Burma Railways, where he had sought employment during the British Raj. Prakash Karat is aMalayali, as his family hailed from Elappully, Palakkad, Kerala. Prakash Karat lived in Palakkad till the age of five before returning to Burma where he lived with his family till the age of nine, when his family left Burma for good in 1957. Karat studied in the Madras Christian College School in Chennai. On finishing school, he won the first prize in an all India essay competition on the Tokyo Olympics. He was sent on a ten day visit to the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 as a result. He went to the Madras Christian College as an undergraduate student in Economics, where he won the prize for the best all round student on graduation. He got a scholarship to Britain's University of Edinburgh, for a Masters degree in politics. In 1970 he received an MSc degree from Edinburgh University for the thesis "Language and politics in modern India". It was at Edinburgh that he became active in student politics and met Professor Victor Kiernan, the well-known Marxist historian. His political activism began with anti-apartheid protests at the University, for which he was rusticated. The rustication was suspended on good behaviour. Karat returned to India in 1970 and joined the premier institution, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He worked as an aide to A.K.Gopalan, the leader of the CPI(M) group in Parliament from 1971 to 1973 while doing his Ph.D. in JNU. Karat was one of the founders of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the CPI(M)'s student wing, in Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was involved with student politics and was elected the third president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student's Union. He also became the second President of the Students Federation of India between 1974 to 1979. He worked underground for one and a half years during the Emergency in India in 1975-76. He was arrested twice and spent 8 days in prison.[edit]Personal life
Prakash Karat married Brinda Karat, then a party colleague, in 1975. Brinda worked in the Air India office in London, before she became a CPI(M) fulltime cadre. Brinda has also risen through the party ranks and is a member of the Politburo. Brinda Karat hails from the state of Bengal. The Karats have no children, by choice.[edit]Communist Party
After returning to India in 1970, Karat joined the Jawaharlal Nehru University and thereafter Communist Party of India (Marxist). He began working as an aide to the party leader A K Gopalan, the legendary communist leader from Kerala. He was the Secretary of the Delhi State Committee of the CPI(M) from 1982 to 1985. Prakash Karat was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI (M) in 1985 and became a member of the 'Politburo' in 1992. He took over as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2005 at the 18th Congress of the Party held in Delhi.[edit]Party Leader
Karat was elected to the Central Committee of the CPI (M) in 1985 and became a member of the Politburo in 1992. The Politburo is the key decision making wing of the party. In 2005, he was elected General Secretary, effectively the most influential position in the party structure.[edit]Academic and political writings
Since 1992, Karat has been on the editorial board of CPI(M)'s academic journal, The Marxist. He is also the managing director of Leftword. He is the author of five books.- Language, Nationality and Politics in India (1972)
- A World to Win -- Essays on the Communist Manifesto (1999), edited
- Across Time and Continents: A tribute to Victor Kiernan (2003), edited
- Subordinate Ally: The nuclear deal and India-US strategic relations (2008)
- politics and policies(2008)
[edit]References
- ^ "Prakash Karat re-elected as CPI(M) general secretary". The Hindu (Chennai, India). April 3, 2008.
- ^ Karat re-elected CPI-M general secretary
- ^ Prakash Karat is CPI-M general secretary
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