Analysis
Mamata, Maoists, Marxists Unmasked
Addressing a press conference on August 10 CPI-M General Secretary Prakash Karat said that his party was not soft on the Indian National Congress (INC) but its main focus was on the Trinamool Congress which was spearheading the anti-Left movement with the INC as its “junior partner”. One wonders if Comrade Karat himself is aware of how right he is! Beyond the petty politicking for electoral gain at the local level the basic rift between Trinamool and the Maoists on the one hand and the CPI-M on the other is a fundamental ideological divide. This divide is rooted at the global level. It reflects the power struggle between two transnational lobbies that operate in almost all nations of the world including America and China.
It should not escape notice that the Maoists, Mamata Banerjee, foreign funded NGOs, liberal, pro-West intellectuals and Christian missionaries are on one side. They advocate a conciliatory approach to the Maoists. The CPI-M, anti-US intellectuals and the BJP are on the other side. Given the CPI-M’s blind support to China Karat’s reference to the Left movement may be dismissed as irrelevant nonsense. The most centralized big business capitalism in the world today is perhaps prevalent in China. Whatever nomenclature the Beijing rulers may adopt for their system it is not by the wildest imagination socialist. Unless of course in the distorted view created among communists by Stalinist history socialism is to be equated with iron fisted dictatorship.
It would be instructive to recall the genesis of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) with headquarters in Chicago which boasts membership of Maoists from both Nepal and India. Oddly enough while the Maoists were officially described as terrorists by US authorities the RIM headquarters and its journal remained untouched inside America. The first public demonstration by RIM adherents inside the US occurred when Deng Xiaoping visited the US. They rallied against him for betraying the Left cause.
Is it not reasonable to infer from the above facts that US security agencies were exploiting Maoism in order to hoist Beijing on its own petard? In the ultimate analysis are not Maoists manipulated by elements in the US ? That is not to suggest that there are not elements inside China which are also supportive of the Maoists against China ’s capitalist model. That is what transnational lobbies are all about. Deng, after all, was the father of China ’s revised economic policy which relied on capitalism and joint ventures with the Western multinational corporations.
While Sino-American collusion in the economic sphere brought about enormous gain to sections in America and China , it is reasonable to infer that it also created severe heartburn among other sections in both nations. Therefore when Prakash Karat, Mamata Banerjee or even the Maoists imagine that they are serving some ideological cause by their exertions they deceive themselves. They are pawns in a global power struggle masked by ideological slogans that deceive reality. Even the erratic Mamata Banerjee has been fairly consistent in opposing big business expansion by claiming to defend the landless poor in Bengal . Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee despite the constraints of his party has been equally consistent in attempting development through cooperation with big business. Both leaders in fact deliver results quite contrary to what they claim to represent. So, which side deserves support?
The short answer is neither side. One side seeks power through support from corporate corruption subverting democracy. The other side aspires for power by coercing democracy through armed force. Both are evil. Both betray the ends they claim to serve. Both adopt means that are criminal. Both represent the degeneration that overtook 20tht century humankind. Ignoring global pressures India must strive for genuine democracy. Democracy is not a methodology though it may often be described as such. It is an ideology. It is based on the belief that people have the right to express their views and the right to choose how they ought to be governed. These rights are conferred to them by accepted means of democratic governance free from corruption or coercion. India must restore these democratic means through electoral and political reform. Mahatma Gandhi said: “Means are the end.” The right means bring about the right ends. That is what democracy is expected to deliver.
11-Aug-2010
More by :
Dr. Rajinder Puri
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