news details |
|
|
| Karat the blunderbuss | | |
Abhijit Chatterjee
Decades ago, when in school, I heard my English teacher teaching us an idiom, “hoist with your own petard”. The idiom has always been a bit of an enigma to me for all the long years thereafter. Over the years, I have been trying to visualise a real-life situation which can lend some practical significance to the idea.
My wait ended on 16 May when I was following the declaration of the Lok Sabha election results on different channels, which by and large caught the one and inimitable “Comrade” Prakash Karat on the television screens. I had a sense of relief. “Comrade” Karat has finally set at rest all my doubts regarding the practical relevance of the idiom.
I can still recall the image of on overbearing, flamboyant and bumptious Prakash Karat addressing journalists in a perfect English accent and diction on the nuances of the Indo-US nuclear deal and loudly condemning what he called an abject surrender by Dr. Manmohan Singh to the “imperialist designs” of the United States of America.
I also recall his flamboyant declaration of withdrawal of support by the Left parties to the UPA dispensation and his vow to topple the government, prevent the deal from being inked and take the issue to the people. The people have given him a royal rebuff.
Today, he stands exposed as a failed ideologue, a poor strategist and a leader who lacks respect and credibility. He stands devastated on all fronts, “1 to ‘n’”, by his pet theme, i.e. the 123 Agreement.
Policy of pragmatism
It is time Mr Karat realises that such slogans such as anti-imperialism and CIA conspiracies have now become clichés. Political dispensations all over the world, including a communist country like China, have adopted the policy of principled pragmatism as opposed to a predilection for metaphysics. In today’s world, nobody can afford to live in an anti-American cocoon.
The likes of Prakash Karat, however, believe in the ostrich theory and prefer to preach and sermonise from the sanitized and ethereal environment of AK Gopalan Bhavan, far removed from the issues which concern the people, and from the rough and tumble of grassroot level politics.
Subhas Chakraborty, known for shooting off his mouth, sometimes hits the nail on the head. He was spot on when he said that Left mandarins, who pontificate from the confines of party offices, should go through the test of facing the people through the democratic process of elections.
The question which often haunts me is how and why the other leaders of the party, particularly in a state like West Bengal kowtow to Prakash Karat in the matter of running the party. It is an exercise in self-delusion to sweep issues under the carpet on the plea of the party constitution and party discipline. Such discipline, so-called, is undemocratic and untenable and can only contribute to the withering away of the party as has happened with traditional communist regimes all over the world including the former Soviet Union.
The expulsion of the Speaker of the 14th Lok Sabha on the ground of breach of discipline and party constitution is a case in point. Mr Somnath Chatterjee was doubtless upholding the highest traditions of parliamentary democracy, and acting in accordance with constitutional ethics and precedents in not surrendering to the party diktat while holding the high constitutional office of Speaker. The CPI-M and its general secretary had no business to undermine the Constitution of India by demanding from the Speaker adherence to the party constitution in preference to the country’s Constitution.
An active government
Any provision in a party’s constitution, which has the effect of undermining the Constitution of India, should be treated as null and void and the party concerned should be de-recognised by the Election Commission. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would be well-advised to remember that the electorate wants a leader who takes decisions in his own right and authority as head of the administration and not one who looks over his shoulders for approval.
It is clear that the withdrawal of support by the CPI-M to the UPA government has hurt and is going to hurt the interests of West Bengal in matters of development. It would be utopian to assume that the Centre would and should go by the book in assisting the states irrespective of the party in power in the state and its equation with the party in power at the Centre. In any event, even if that happens, the Central government may not do that extra bit which it would do to a state government which is on good terms with the Centre.
The CPI-M has no right to make the state suffer to satisfy the egos of some armchair politicians in Delhi and in pursuing its own agenda of an academic debate over the propriety of actions of the Central government. In such a case, the party should relinquish power and fight its own battle.
The people in general are simply not interested. The people of the state want a government which delivers, not a government whose constituents are only adept in engaging themselves in a running battle and fruitless muscle-flexing on non-issues vis-à-vis the Central government
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
