Call it the new age dialectics invented by those in charge of concocted revolution. The political dilemma that the politburo of the CPI(M) faces now is purely historical, but with a difference; it is paradoxically historical. It now embattles the enigmatic irony of a political Right-turn which has been vehemently checked by an army of comrades who now face the threat of isolation and retaliatory action just because they seemed a stumbling block to the new-age CPI(M).
It all started with the March 12 Central Committee decision that barred the Politburo members from contesting Assembly election. A shot in the arm for the capitalist comrades in Kerala who were waiting for a chance to herald the political death of VS Achuthanandan, the leader of the die-hard ideologues in the State.
The Central Committee decision paved the way for the March 16 Kerala State Committee announcement that denied him a seat in the coming Assembly election. The move invited protests from supporters of the VS faction who considered Mr Achuthanandan the only means to check the surging onslaught of the so-called agenda of globalisation in the State.
However, the capitalist comrades in the Kerala CPI(M), who have all been up in arms against this apostle of ideal Marxism, have made up their mind, scripting what they called the requiem on the political existence of the old Red admiral.
This very episode makes one recall the enigma of the metamorphosis of the Marxist party into a post-modern social democratic party that discards the very credentials of its own ideology, a transformation into a market-driven Marxist party. Is this accidental? No. Historical by all means, but as we stated above, with a difference.
The ideological churn that has been haunting the Indian Left in the post-Soviet era has produced its offspring now, though quite accidentally. Blind to the rational and radical developments that whirlpooled the Indian political arena, the Politburo now is a divided
lot. The party in Kerala always relied on Mr Achuthanandan, a vocal critic of the neo-liberal economic environment, to gather momentum in the battle against capitalism. It upheld his personality as an ambassador of "anti-capitalist agenda". But the shift in the political stance has forced it to invent a new political vocabulary using which it can never script the sort of revolution it is used to.
That Mr Achuthanandan is the last name that the capitalist comrades in the Kerala CPI(M) can think of when it comes to facing the 2006 Assembly election means the political ideology that he represented has become obsolete to them. A drastic change, indeed. For the new-age Marxist messiahs in Kerala, Mr Achuthanandan is a stale Marxist metaphor. So, doing away with that metaphor comes only as the last step in the historic transformation of a Marxist party to the so-called social democratic party.
The violent outbreak of protests against the leadership - that too in Kerala - underscores the very transition of Marxist party. The party has never faced such a crisis; that of its own activists leading protest march to the AKG Bhavan - the secretarialpalace of Kerala
(Article Published on The Pioneer,March 12, 2006 )
It all started with the March 12 Central Committee decision that barred the Politburo members from contesting Assembly election. A shot in the arm for the capitalist comrades in Kerala who were waiting for a chance to herald the political death of VS Achuthanandan, the leader of the die-hard ideologues in the State.
The Central Committee decision paved the way for the March 16 Kerala State Committee announcement that denied him a seat in the coming Assembly election. The move invited protests from supporters of the VS faction who considered Mr Achuthanandan the only means to check the surging onslaught of the so-called agenda of globalisation in the State.
However, the capitalist comrades in the Kerala CPI(M), who have all been up in arms against this apostle of ideal Marxism, have made up their mind, scripting what they called the requiem on the political existence of the old Red admiral.
This very episode makes one recall the enigma of the metamorphosis of the Marxist party into a post-modern social democratic party that discards the very credentials of its own ideology, a transformation into a market-driven Marxist party. Is this accidental? No. Historical by all means, but as we stated above, with a difference.
The ideological churn that has been haunting the Indian Left in the post-Soviet era has produced its offspring now, though quite accidentally. Blind to the rational and radical developments that whirlpooled the Indian political arena, the Politburo now is a divided
lot. The party in Kerala always relied on Mr Achuthanandan, a vocal critic of the neo-liberal economic environment, to gather momentum in the battle against capitalism. It upheld his personality as an ambassador of "anti-capitalist agenda". But the shift in the political stance has forced it to invent a new political vocabulary using which it can never script the sort of revolution it is used to.
That Mr Achuthanandan is the last name that the capitalist comrades in the Kerala CPI(M) can think of when it comes to facing the 2006 Assembly election means the political ideology that he represented has become obsolete to them. A drastic change, indeed. For the new-age Marxist messiahs in Kerala, Mr Achuthanandan is a stale Marxist metaphor. So, doing away with that metaphor comes only as the last step in the historic transformation of a Marxist party to the so-called social democratic party.
The violent outbreak of protests against the leadership - that too in Kerala - underscores the very transition of Marxist party. The party has never faced such a crisis; that of its own activists leading protest march to the AKG Bhavan - the secretarial
(Article Published on The Pioneer,
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