The Hindu : Opinion / Editorials : KARAT AT THE HELM

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Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

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KARAT AT THE HELM

THE SMOOTH, UNANIMOUS election of Prakash Karat as general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) marks a generational shift, with a leader born after Independence rising to the top for the first time in the party's 41-year post-split history. Although the CPI (M) adheres to a collective decision-making process, the choice of the 56-year-old Mr. Karat marks a recognition of the fresh challenges posed for the Indian Left by the widening inequalities of a rapidly globalising economy and, at another level, by the inability of the CPI (M) to break out of its three State strongholds and grow beyond its minor league status in the vast Hindi-speaking region. While veteran leaders of the party, notably the outgoing general secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, and the former West Bengal Chief Minister, Jyoti Basu, remain in the Polit Bureau, the onus now is clearly on a younger team of leaders to set the agenda and show results. Mr. Karat, who enjoys a wide support base within the party, brings with him the strengths of a thinker and theoretician, the experience of an organiser and field worker, the reassurance of a leader who will not seek the limelight. While remaining true to the core principles of Marxism, he can help narrow the gap between the Left parties and the ruling United Progressive Alliance on a number of contentious policy issues. Mr. Karat, in fact, was instrumental in narrowing the differences with the Central Government by extending support for the Patents (Amendments) Bill in return for crucial concessions such as the exclusion of embedded software from the patents regime and the redefinition of "new inventions.''

The elevation of Burma-born, Chennai- and Edinburgh-educated Mr. Karat coincides with a political phase in which the CPI (M), as the spearhead of the Left, has been obliged to support a Congress-led coalition at the Centre to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party out. Although the CPI (M) is sharply opposed to a range of Congress policies, the unstable, complex political situation has found it entering into seat adjustments or having indirect truck with that party in some States. All this implies a problematical relationship with the Central Government. However, the difficulties were considerably eased by the CPI (M)'s decision not to be part of the UPA Government. The party's line, which Mr. Karat helped shape and had a leading role in seeing through the Polit Bureau and Central Committee, was that it would not be part of any government over whose basic policies it could not expect to have much of a say. To the mouth-watering surprise of various other parties and leaders, the CPI (M) in the second half of the 1990s passed up an opportunity to let Jyoti Basu become Prime Minister. Although this line faced some opposition at the top, it eventually gained powerful acceptance among the various party committees, rank-and-file members, and sympathisers. Now the CPI too has adopted the same line. Left support for the UPA is now based on a National Common Minimum Programme, which Mr. Karat, among others, helped formulate.

Besides providing an important link in the CPI (M)'s relations with other organisations, Mr. Karat is known to be a committed and persuasive unifier within the party. Without doubt, his assertiveness during the recent Kerala State Conference helped quell factionalism and strengthen inner-party democracy in the State unit. The new general secretary and his colleagues will now need to come up with fresh ideas as well as ways and means to expand the party's base beyond the States of West Bengal, Tripura, and Kerala. Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, the two largest States of the Hindi belt, pose the biggest challenge. If the CPI(M) aspires to a greater weight in the polity and to a more influential role at the Centre, it absolutely needs to get on to a trajectory of extensive rather than intensive but hemmed-in growth. With Mr. Karat at the helm, the party will have its best chance in a long time of responding effectively to this sub-continental challenge.

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