Earlier this month, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) lost the Assembly elections in Tripura, where it held power continuously for 25 years, to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The result, which leaves the party ruling only in Kerala now, was “unexpected”, says Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M).
Mr. Yechury examines the reasons for the surprise defeat; speaks of the struggles that led to the successful farmers’ rally in Maharashtra that was organised by the All India Kisan Sabha, the party’s peasant wing; and talks about the disagreements within the CPI(M) on what its political line should be for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Excerpts:
Did the CPI(M) not foresee a shift in its vote base in Tripura?
As far as we are concerned, it was an unexpected result. Tripura became the number one literate State [in 2013, ahead of Kerala]. It has a whole new crop of educated, healthy youth who were not plagued by internecine tensions, communal conflicts and moral policing that you see in the rest of the country. All these were positive achievements that were acknowledged by successive Prime Ministers.
Now, on the basis of that performance, the results were unexpected. In an election, someone wins, someone loses. This is what democracy is all about. We humbly accept the people’s verdict.
What were the reasons for your defeat?
The BJP emerged as the anti-Left pole in the State. They swallowed up all the other political parties, mainly the Congress. The BJP did a lot of social engineering. They tied up with an extremist tribal group [the Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura], a group that was demanding a separate tribal State [Twipraland], initially out of India; now we don’t know what their position is. These are the groups that are otherwise antithetical to the slogans that the BJP gives of Hindutva nationalism.
Another reason was the growing aspirations of voters. In a northeastern State where there are meagre resources and there is no infrastructure basis for industry to grow, large-scale employment generation is not possible. And because of its terrain, even large-scale agriculture is not possible. You had aspirations rising, and conditions to meet those expectations were not there.
And, thirdly, [voters] were looking for change.
How will this defeat impact the CPI(M) in the rest of the country, especially in Kerala?
Soon after Tripura, you had the by-elections in Uttar Pradesh where the BJP lost on the Chief Minister’s own turf. In Bihar, the betrayal of Nitish Kumar of the Mahagatbandhan was resoundingly rejected by the people. Prior to that, in Rajasthan, they lost two of their own seats. In Madhya Pradesh, they could not unseat the opposition. You have to see other developments as well. The impact will be balanced.
In a speech at the Kerala State Conference, you said that the CPI(M) does not stand for the Communist Party of Kerala (Marxist) but for the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Is this myopic view hurting the party?
I did not say that. What I said is that I am the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The media, the Kerala media particularly, interpreted it in their own way. The CPI(M) is a centralised, pan-India party, and the decisions on what the party’s line should be are taken by the party committees. And whatever the Central Committee finally approves is the understanding of the party as a whole.
The political-tactical line approved by the Central Committee says that “appropriate electoral tactics to maximise the pooling of the anti-BJP votes” will be done. Should we presume that to stall the BJP government in a post-poll scenario, you could ally with the Congress?
We have said that an appropriate electoral tactic will be worked out to ensure maximisation of anti-BJP votes in accordance with our political line. Our political line says that the priority is to defeat the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-led BJP government. But that is not to be done with an understanding or alliance with the Congress. That is a decision we will take then. All this is speculation right now.
Do you feel that the Tripura results vindicate the position you have taken to keep the door open?
In Tripura, the conditions were entirely different. The polarisation was Left and anti-Left. Any other possibility just doesn’t exist in Tripura.
There were allegations levelled by some Central Committee members that the majority view is soft on the BJP, and the Kerala unit is working under pressure from investigating agencies to take such a view.
Well, these are absolute speculations, and their own interpretations. This is not the reality. We take our positions on the basis of our understanding and assessment of ground realities. There were no extraneous factors.
The Maharashtra Kisan rally was a great success. There is a view that the CPI(M) should concentrate more on such mass movements rather than look for electoral victories.
The Maharashtra rally is not an overnight development; this is something for which three-year-long preparations went on. It was in October 2015 that our party State committee in Maharashtra [decided that] protests against that must be mounted. On the basis of that preparation, in March 2016, Nashik was gheraoed and more than one lakh farmers came demanding loan waiver, remunerative prices, and the implementation of the forest tribal land law, which is being violated with impunity in the State. The Chief Minister called for talks ; the government asked for six months of time. We had said that if the government betrays [the farmers], then the next city to be blockaded will be Mumbai. That is why this march was from Nashik to Mumbai. In 2017, there was a farmers’ strike, a unique event. They refused to sell their produce to the city; instead they fed the slum children. That evoked a lot of public sympathy. The government said that more than ₹30,000 crore of loans will be waived, but what did the Budget show? Only ₹13,000 crore of loans were waived.
The primary emphasis of the party is in building and strengthening people’s movements and struggles. Through that we aim to increase our support base among the people and move towards changing the political correlation. It is not a trade-off between electoral tactics and mass movements.
There are allegations against you that your push to align with the Congress may bring temporary electoral benefits but will affect your party’s ideology in the longer run.
These are all opinions and speculations that have very little to do with our decisions inside the party. The point is, the best way we can achieve our objective, on which we are clear, is defeating the RSS-led BJP government.
We are very clear that in our country, for the Left to advance, it has to be on the basis of the strength of people’s movements, on the basis of an alternative policy direction. That is why I always say, ‘Desh ko neta nahi, niti chaiye [The country doesn’t need a politician, it needs policy]’ .
How hopeful are you that party delegates will take a more sympathetic view of your political line?
It is not a question of a degree of hopefulness. The draft has now gone to the party rank and file. In our party we have a very vibrant inner-party democracy. Every party member has the right to send in amendments and has the right to give opinions. All those will be considered. A report of those amendments will be presented to the party congress. It is only after that will the resolution be cleared. It is a very rigorous process and it will be followed. Let us see what will be the outcome.
But if your line is defeated, can you still continue in the position of general secretary?
All this is in anticipation of what is likely to happen. This is not the first time that you are having discussions and voting also. The then general secretary’s opinion was not carried on the issue of Jyoti Basu being the Prime Minister. This is purely our inner party matter and we highly value our inner-party democracy.
The BJP has been aiming for a Communist-mukt Bharat. The CPI(M) faced a similar threat during Indira Gandhi’s time. Between the two, who do you think poses greater danger?
Whichever party acts against the people’s interests is more dangerous. At one point it was the Congress, now it is the BJP. Both these parties are ruling class parties. For the ruling class, Communists are the basic enemy. It is more so for the BJP. They have publicly declared that three internal forces who are stopping their march towards converting India to a Hindu Rashtra are Muslims, Christians and the Communists. They find us to be the most ideological, most consistent and organised opponents. That is why Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that even though Tripura has only two [Lok Sabha] seats, the Assembly win was significant because of [the BJP’s] ideological victory.
Do you see disparate political parties coming together before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls?
In Indian politics, a lot of water will flow in all our rivers. There will be many alignments and realignments. Six months ago, who would have thought of [Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister] Chandrababu Naidu exiting the NDA [National Democratic Alliance], who would have thought of a Dravidian party allying with the BJP, or who would have thought of the SP [Samajwadi Party] and the BSP [Bahujan Samaj Party] coming together? Or, for that matter, who would have thought that Nitish Kumar, after leading the Mahagatbandhan, will walk out of it, only to be rejected by the voters?
Can the Modi government be defeated in 2019?
I am seeing a parallel to the 2004 general election. After having won some State Assembly elections, the then BJP government decided to advance the elections thinking that they would sweep them. What was the atmosphere we were subjected to then? ‘Shining India’, a ‘feel-good’ factor, the opposition in a disarray... therefore, everyone thought that Atal Bihari Vajpayee would come back with a two-thirds majority. Nobody thought that the BJP would be defeated. We have faith in the Indian people and they will decide in the best interest of our country.
