Letters: Whither comrade?

This refers to the article “Left in the lurch” (October 22) by Veenu Sandhu and Ishita Ayan Dutt. The Left parties in India are in transition — and that entails coming out of denial and accepting certain realities. The first reality in India is caste. Communists, especially Marxists, have long considered caste identity a thing of the past, but it made a comeback in India by the early 1980s. The downtrodden, for whom the communists fought relentlessly, also subscribe to the caste system. Even as the Communist Party of India was able to acknowledge this problem to a small extent, the Marxists summarily denied that casteism could ever make a comeback. But even today, in rural India, the poor are comfortable working under the rich in agricultural fields, rather than take up machetes against them to fight for some notion of equality.

The second reality that communists denied is “inequality” as a fact of life. The risk taker cannot be forced to share his fortune with those working for him. The communist theme of “everything for everyone” cannot work. This became clearer as some of the communists, too, started talking a different language when their wards graduated from schools and colleges and started their own ventures. No communist would dare ask his son/daughter to pay wages to his workers that match his own remuneration. Neither is the labourer interested in possessing mansions — he is interested in having three square meals, clothes and housing.

Third, communists deny consumerism to be a normal human instinct. The purchase of any new item was frowned on. What they do not understand is that it was the consumerist culture that spurred jobs.

The communist’s arrogance and stubbornness in sticking to the same line of argument explains well why they are where they are today. They think that reading Das Kapital is sufficient and any new concept is not needed. This has resulted in them becoming inconsequential in today’s changing political climate. The time of reckoning has come for the Leftists. They need to understand and acknowledge that markets provide jobs and that investors are part of the system and must be treated with due respect. The Democrats in the US, the Labour Party in England, the Greens in Australia are all Left parties. Their way of functioning should be noted by our Leftists.

Raghu Seshadri, Chennai

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