T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan: `Chit bhi meri, pat bhi meri

LINE & LENGTH

There is a vanity that Marxists like to flaunt, called "forces of history". This holds that in the shaping of history, individuals don't matter and that there are huge forces at work which determine both the processes and the outcomes. The truth, of course, is that this is the Marxist version of the theory that God is responsible for everything.

Clearly, Russian history would have been vastly different had Trotsky listened to Lenin and become General Secretary of the Communist Party instead of allowing Stalin to grab the post, which allowed him control of what in India is so drearily called "postings and transfers". In Stalin's case of course, the transfer was to Siberia and the posting to heaven.

Much of the melodrama that Indian politicians have now served up before a tired and irritated Indian public can be explained by making this simple substitution: replace all the humbug about history being made with Manmohan Singh, Prakash Karat and Sonia Gandhi