When Prakash Karat wakes up every morning, his main agenda for the day is simple, focused and straightforward: How to create road blocks and throw spanners in the juggernaut of Indian democracy. It's because of people like him and the politics he represent, India is lamenting the fact that she is a democracy where EVERY ONE has a voice - no matter if it is one that is shouting to cut Mother India's arm and legs and then sell the torso in the fish market.
Communism has a wierd history in India. They are broadly divided in 2 catagories - ones that are mainstream and participate in electoral politics and ones that are involved in armed uprising and are deemed terrorists in India. This writup deals with the ones the citizens of India elect as their leaders and representatives. We will leave the other kind to be dealt with appropriately by the Indian law and order machinery.
As you can see in this figure, the communists are kingmakers in the Indian parliament. The communists have an idealist agenda and are increasingly isolated in a forward looking India. Dare I say, that sometimes they come out as even more communists than the ones found in China and the USSR. Even China has learnt to change their idealogy to adapt to a changing world environment.
A curious fact about this is that India is the only country that ELECTS communists to the parliament in a free and fare elections. So whatever I say here, some would say that we deserve it.
Communism has a wierd history in India. They are broadly divided in 2 catagories - ones that are mainstream and participate in electoral politics and ones that are involved in armed uprising and are deemed terrorists in India. This writup deals with the ones the citizens of India elect as their leaders and representatives. We will leave the other kind to be dealt with appropriately by the Indian law and order machinery.
As you can see in this figure, the communists are kingmakers in the Indian parliament. The communists have an idealist agenda and are increasingly isolated in a forward looking India. Dare I say, that sometimes they come out as even more communists than the ones found in China and the USSR. Even China has learnt to change their idealogy to adapt to a changing world environment.
A curious fact about this is that India is the only country that ELECTS communists to the parliament in a free and fare elections. So whatever I say here, some would say that we deserve it.
The communists claim that they have the best of India at heart and they lookout for anything that could be detrimental to India's national security and so on and so forth. A deeper look into their dealings give a different picture. A revealing article here details how the fathers of Indian communism movement used to take orders from their masters in China and the earstwhile USSR. In fact, it hasn't been even a few months when the Indian communist leaders could not decide how to respond to China's claim over Arunachal Pradesh. Of course, the communists still don't condemn the 1962 Chinese aggression over India*.
Now to this nuclear deal with the US. Of course, the communists will use whatever they have in their arsenal to shoot this bird down. After all, capitalist US is an anathema to the communists. A joint partnership with the US will mean the death knell for the only elected communists in the world.
As Times (UK) points out "Who would have thought, in a deal that gives India too much while asking for too few safeguards in return, that the greatest opposition would come from within India itself?"
With Friends Like You, Who Needs Enemies?
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*Want to read more about the various stances the communists of India have taken over the years, read here.
