The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Saturday began attending to the task of acquiring greater clarity on ideological issues and coming up with a socialism model rooted in Indian conditions and not replicated from any system practised in other countries.
Having studied systems in China, Russia, North Korea, South Africa, Cuba, Venezuela and drawing lessons from them, the CPI(M) prepared a draft resolution that would come up for vote at the ongoing party congress here on Sunday.
“We need socialism for India not based on conditions in Russia or China… we are learning from their experience and applying what is relevant to Indian conditions. We are not saying their [other countries] path is right or wrong…the birth of the CPI(M) is based on the major issue of path of revision of socialist trend …,” Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told the media.
Elaborating on the thrust of the resolution that he moved before the congress, Mr. Yechury said it took stock of developments in the world over the last two decades, interpreted the current global challenges and how various countries were meeting them.
Political alternative
“Focus is on how to strengthen the political alternative in India. The objective is to transform the situation and the subjective situation is to have a political alternative to replace the capitalist [form].”
He said the current economic crisis showed that the capitalist approach was not capable of overcoming it but was leading from one crisis to another. Globalisation was leading to inequality with the International Labour Organisation terming it ‘jobless growth.'
For instance, he said, loss of purchasing power had led to a problem — if goods produced were not sold, capitalists would suffer, and they offered cheap credit that resulted in a sub-prime crisis in the United States. Bailout by the government was for those financial giants who caused the economic meltdown.
“From corporate insolvency [it led to] to sovereign insolvency,” Mr. Yechury said, pointing out that the crisis in Europe, which began in Greece, was seeing more countries being drawn in and to overcome sovereign crisis, austerity measures were being applied in the form of wage cuts for the working class with longer hours of work.
Term limit
The meeting will also deliberate on an important amendment to the party Constitution that seeks to introduce a three-term limit for all secretaries, including general secretary. The amendment when carried would mean that all those holding the post, including Prakash Karat, cannot continue beyond three terms. Each term lasts normally three years, the period between two party congresses.
Mr. Karat was elected in 2005 at the New Delhi congress and re-elected at Coimbatore three years later. In view of the Assembly elections in Kerala and West Bengal, the party postponed the 20 edition of the congress to this year.
Responding to questions on fixing responsibility for electoral reverses, the Polit Bureau member said the organisation practised “collective functioning and individual responsibility.”
