With reference to “Divided we stand” (January 19), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would do well to revisit history. So long as the Left eschewed ideological extremes it gained in stature. The Left evolved as part of the Congress around 1920 and did well till it veered in excess to the left-wing and lost ground in 1928. Later, moving back to the centre it prospered in the Congress collective. Then in 1942 it went Marxist to lose lustre thereafter.
Post-1960s, it allied again with the Congress and came to represent the trademark red in Indian politics. For three decades the
