Leading political activist and founder of Swaraj India Party Yogendra Yadav has served the Pinarayi Vijayan government a warning. "My fear is that the ideological distinction between the CPM and the Congress is being blurred now in terms of economic policies and though this may help the party in the short term, in the long term, if it follows this path, it is not clear it would remain a Left party," he said while talking to Onmanorama.
The activist politician said Pinarayi Vijayan was doing to CPM what Tony Blair did to the Labour Party in the UK. "The trouble is, the class structure of Britain is very different from the class structure in Kerala," he said. Yadav was responding to Onmanorama's queries in the context of the new political line adopted by the CPM at the party's 23rd Party Congress in Kannur.
He also spoke about the political significance of the CPM in the fight to save the country from forces attempting to dismantle the idea of India. But he laid down the limitations. The CPM's value is not in creating an electoral alliance but in developing unity of purpose, he said. "The unity of purpose should not be confused with an electoral coalition. The Left and socialist forces today are numerically not in a position to determine the fate of this country. But they can play a critical role in deciding the political direction of this country."
About the SilverLine project, Yadav had this to say: "To me it looks more like a vanity project than an economic transformative project. And you wonder why a Left party is putting so much of future resources into a project like this."
At the 23rd Party Congress, the CPM resolved not to have any truck with the Indian National Congress. Instead, it would form a coalition of regional parties. How viable is such a political strategy?
The challenge of taking on the BJP is not about electoral coalition. A coalition can make a difference only in a small belt like Karnataka, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Bihar. The challenge of the CPM, or for that matter the opposition, is to create a unity of purpose and develop a credible message and a robust messenger. A 'mahagatbandhan' of opposition players is neither necessary nor a sufficient condition. But unity of purpose is. The CPM can help to create a larger synergy and develop a vision. Frankly, I cannot think of many places where the CPM's alliance with the Congress would make a material difference to defeating the BJP.
The Kerala CPM's anti-Congress stand is justified in that the party's success in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls depends on the failure of the Congress. Will this create a fatal conflict within this prospective Left-Secular alliance?
The Kerala CPM seems to be under pressure to function like a regional political player, and this could be at odds with the national imperative of the CPM. It is up to Sitaram Yehury, who carries a lot of weight in national politics, to do the balancing.
The first Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala had at least theoretically managed to convince that all its big ticket ideas and projects were essentially for the welfare of the poor. But right from the start of their second term, the LDF government has announced programmes that unapologetically cater to supposed middle and upper middle class aspirations; the SilverLine project, the new liquor policy and the red carpet for private investors in the higher education sector to name a few. In fact, even during the last term, the CPM did not think twice about reclaiming paddy lands for the construction of highways and also relaxing mining controls. Is this a development compulsion even the Left has to yield to or a sign of the mainstream Left's growing indifference to Leftist ideals? Even you were highly critical of the CPM's ideological rigidity. You had said that the party had never really appreciated the importance of individual liberty and enterprise. Therefore, can we see the new development agenda of the Kerala CPM as an attempt to break free of the CPM's rigid dogmatic framework?
I would like to see it beyond the simple binary of dogmatic versus openness. Of course, openness is always nice. The larger crisis, as has always been the case, is that of a Communist party which operates within the liberal democratic frame and which is hemmed in by the constraints of a capitalist economy. That is not a new dilemma. In the case of Pinarayi Vijayan, I see many of the tendencies that we saw under Tony Blair in the UK.
I am not a very good student of Kerala politics because I don't read the Kerala newspapers on a day to day basis, but looking at it from a distance it seems he (Vijayan) is trying to do what Tony Blair did to the Labour Party in the UK. The trouble is, the class structure of Britain is very different from the class structure in Kerala. In Britain, the labour class was actually a minority. The country was predominantly a middle class country. In the case of Kerala, although there is a lot of prosperity that has come, it still remains a state where the relatively disadvantaged are in overwhelming numbers.
While the changing economy of Kerala calls for a shift in the economic policies, my own impression is that the many shifts that I notice and hear about in Kerala are much beyond the compulsions of a capitalist economy. My fear is that the ideological distinction between the CPM and the Congress is being blurred now in terms of economic policies and though this may help the party in the short term, in the long term, if it follows this path, it is not clear it would remain a Left party.
Is there any particular policy or programme that has given you cause for such a concern?
The SilverLine project, for example. I am astonished that a Left government would commit this quantum of resources into a project that is not going to change the economic future of the state. And if so, the question is why are they into such a project. I am told the overall cost would be well over Rs 1 lakh crore. To me it looks more like a vanity project than an economic transformative project. And you wonder why a Left party is putting so much of future resources into a project like this.
The 23rd Party Congress has said it would hold up the Kerala governance model as the alternative to the Hindutva-powered growth model of the BJP. How inspiring would this be for other Left and secular parties?
Kerala does have a model to show to the country. It is not necessarily the CPM model. The fact is that Kerala has been something of an outstanding exception in the country, and this is not only because of the Communist party. It is because of the long tradition of anti-caste movement, tradition of literacy movement and various things that have happened in Kerala over the last century. Kerala is a source from where the entire country should learn from.
The challenge for the CPM is to show to the country that there is something that they have done that the country must learn from. Kerala has better literacy but that is not what the country needs now. Kerala has better education but very poor employment opportunities. Kerala has better health and that is certainly something that could be presented to the country as a model. Handling of COVID is something that the rest of the country should learn from. Kerala's agriculture is so unique that it is very hard for anyone to learn from it. Everything is different. When it comes to agriculture, Kerala is practically a country by itself.
If the CPM government can offer MSP (minimum support price) on various commodities, on fruits and vegetables, that could be a model for the country. In general, it is a welcome idea to show that there is more than one model of governance. But the CPM would have to work very hard at being able to present something that can be attractive for the rest of the country.
Now if these governance attributes and the glorious tradition of secularism that the Left is trying to uphold are clubbed, are we looking at the national vision that you were talking about?
Look, the fact is the governance model of the CPM in West Bengal was very poor. In West Bengal, where they ruled the longest, they did not have very much of a model to show. Except land reforms, almost every other important indicators like education and health were nothing to write home about. So the CPM will have to convince people very hard that it has a different governance model.
Kerala is different not only because of CPM. It is because Kerala happens to be very different. And Kerala is superior to other parts of the country in so many other ways. Kerala has a much better starting point. Yes, Mr Modi also advertised the Gujarat model. Everyone could see that many of the things that he was advertising about Gujarat were actually achieved during the Congress regime.
So in politics, I guess, it's alright to make claims based on something larger but it will have to be very Kerala specific. Now, it would be very hard for the CPM to say we have governed better whenever we got the opportunity, that would be a very difficult game to sustain.
On secularism, I think it is a much cleaner record. The CPM in general, not just in Kerala. In Bengal, too, the CPM's record was very exemplary. If you look at what is happening today in Bengal, the kind of communal tensions there, you would want to thank the CPM for playing the role that it did. Bengal was very prone to communal violence. It was one of the most communally charged places in the country and the CPM did well to keep it under check while it was in power.
So yes, in secularism, their claims are stronger than their claims of providing a general good model of governance to the country.
The party congress was also serious about connecting with other Left, secular and socialist parties. Will Swaraj India be part of this, have you got some feelers? The CPM was part of the leadership of the farmers' struggle in which you were also a very indispensable part.
Swaraj India, in our recently held national executive meeting and in the political resolution we adopted there, has also identified this challenge of saving the country and defending the Republic as the principal challenge of the next two years. We too have resolved to work with any political force, cutting across ideological divides, who today can be of help in combating this dismantling of the Republic.
I suppose any patriot in India, whether CPM or Swaraj India or anyone else, would know that right now the biggest challenge is to save the dismantling of the Republic, to prevent the strangulation of democracy, to save the idea of a secular federal India Republic. That must be the principal challenge. Anyone who prioritises anything else is not being true to their national duty right now.
I am not surprised that the CPM thinks so. All of us must think so but this is not to say that there would be an electoral alliance. The unity of purpose should not be confused with an electoral coalition. I guess it would be great to have unity of purpose of all such forces. The Left and socialist forces today are numerically not in a position to determine the fate of this country. But they can play a critical role in deciding the political direction of this country.
The Left did not create a socialist revolution but it did ensure that India democracy became more democratic. It has a similar role to play today of saving the very idea of India.
Do you mean to say that unity of purpose is enough to generate enough momentum to rattle the forces that you say are busy dismantling the idea of India?
I am not saying it's enough. I am saying it is all that CPM can do. If I am going to say that I am going to change the direction of the country in 2024, everyone will ask me where is the strength. The same question will be asked to anyone.
Nonetheless, the CPM has an important role to play. I am sure the way their political resolution is worded, the CPM is planning to play that kind of role. The CPM is taken seriously in political circles. They can play a role in creating a certain unity of purpose in the anti-BJP segment of the non-BJP opposition. They can rally the forces of counter hegemony.
There are also parties like Naveen Patnaik's Biju Janata Dal and Aam Aadmi Party that are non-BJP but are not anti-BJP. They are not forces of counter hegemony. They are willing to play the game within the rules set by the BJP.
Today we need forces who challenge those rules and CPM can be one of the important forces in this fight. Not because of their electoral weight but because of their political significance. And CPM can even play a role in converting these non-BJP parties that are willing to play by the BJP rules, to the opposition alliance.