The CPI(M) seems to be passing through a crisis of conscience. "Socialism is a far cry and we have not achieved it yet," said party veteran and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, supporting the pro-reform drive of his successor, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. "The age-old tactical line of the CPI(M) has to change," declared Mr Bhattacharjee in the run-up to the party's State conference. Mr Bhattacharjee and Mr Basu have been saying all this for the past two years. Mr Bhattacharjee has even blamed his party cadre for the flight of capital from the State in the 1960s and the 1970s.

It was West Bengal that had led the industrialisation drive in the country with its engineering, jute, pharma and leather industries that were set up before independence. The State, however, suffered a setback when Communists began demonising industrialists, forcing them to shut down their enterprises.

The Marxists misled workers into believing that they could run enterprises vacated by the trained managers only to find them sinking further into debt. As the ruling party for the past 30 years, the CPI(M) is confronted with the harsh reality of West Bengal's dipping human development indices and rising unemployment. While new jobs and investments proliferated elsewhere, in West Bengal the Marxists could only deliver 'ideology'.

Mr Bhattacharjee needs to hold up as a role model his party's bete noir, Mr Narendra Modi, who has succeeded in cornering much of the new investments for Gujarat. With Mr Modi getting re-elected on the development agenda and the CPI(M) getting cornered on the industrialisation issue, Mr Bhattacharjee now feels emboldened to play the role of a reformer. The fact that Mr Basu has come out in his support at a time when party factions and Left Front allies are crying apostasy, reveals the tectonic forces that are rising within the CPI(M).

For Mr Basu and Mr Bhattacharjee, the ideological crisis is increasingly becoming a confrontation with their conscience. To avoid questioning the very basis of Marxism, the two leaders are now trying to bypass the ideological question and find justification for their compromise with capitalism in the working of the economy and the federal structure. There is no alternative to industrialisation without capitalism, even though socialism remains the best structure, says the Marxist Chief Minister.

That sounds almost like what the Chinese Communists are saying to justify their switch-over from Marxism to market that has pushed China to the forefront of the world order within 30 years. When Deng Xiaoping took over from Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese economy was on the verge of collapsing. Deng was wise enough to accept the advice of Singapore's architect Lee Kuan Yew and switch-over to market economy.

As it stands now, it is the Western countries that have social security programmes, making a mockery of the Marxists' prediction that capitalism would make the poor poorer. And the problem with Indian Marxists is that they refuse to read the writing on the wall.

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has sought to give a different take on the party colleagues' reformist twist -- he has blamed the media for misreporting facts! But days after their views were reported by media, neither Mr Basu nor Mr Bhattacharjee has denied the comments, which means the reports were accurate. It is Mr Karat who is confusion personified. While he is opposing the UPA Government's economic reforms, his colleagues in West Bengal are pursuing reforms and the capitalist path.

Mr VS Achuthanandan, the Chief Minister of Kerala, is another Marxist who refuses to wake up to reality. Rejecting the reform thesis, he has asserted: "The innate strength of the working class will inevitably wipe away capitalism." Ironically, the 'Fatherland of Communism' has shown the irrelevance of Marxist dogma. Another Communist bastion, China, is today a roaring market economy with all capitalist trappings. Vietnam, once a foe of capitalist America, is now busy welcoming US President George W Bush and selling cheap goods to US markets.

But probably dogma will not die that soon here as it did in eastern Europe. It is tempting to see the call for reforms by Mr Basu and Mr Bhattacharjee as a warning to Mr Karat and his ilk to set aside their dogma and face the reality of market economy. Unwavering Marxists would want us to believe that the last word in economics and politics was that of Marx and Engels. But the truth is to the contrary.

Economic theory has left Marx far behind. Refusal to read the writing on the wall proved fatal for East European Communist countries which, unlike Communist China, did not dump Marx and Mao in time.

Whatever way the Marxists try to contain the pressure for dumping dogma and embracing market may be an intra-party affair. But the problem is also national because it is Mr Karat's 59 MPs who keep the UPA Government in power. The great national concern is not because some Marxists are calling for reforms, but because some other Marxists in charge of the party are not allowing the Union Government to take decisions. The Marxists think that till the UPA remains in power, they can enjoy power without responsibility.

Courtesy: www.dailypioneer.com, January 11, 2008