Communism is dead

Long Live Communist Party

At the outset I am curious Does any one remember Mao Tse Tung and Stalin? I asked around few people but most had a vague idea. Communism was ISIS of last century. Mao spearheaded Red Revolution in China and Stalin did it in Russia. For the uninitiated red means violent. Thousands of bourgeoisie were killed for accession to power. But what is Communism?

Socialism and Communism:

Socialism is not communism. Both may have few similarity but that is superficial. Socialism believes that all people are equal and therefore society should be an egalitarian space where are citizens are treated equally. A German philosopher Hegel in 18th century propagated  the philosophy of socialism i.e. ‘classless society’. Hegel is therefore termed to be the father of Socialism. Principle of equality  though acceptable, there was no way to establish which society. European Nobles, Royals etc. would not give up their titles. There was no way a poor could be elevated and emancipated  unless s/he prospers by sheer luck or hard work. Industrialisation had barely started at that time. Industrial workers were in sub human working conditions.

Karl Marx and Communist Manifesto:

19th Century, post industrialisation, saw another German philosopher namely Karl Marx. Who gave a new theory of socialism. Building upon the need for classless society, he observed that the present society is in a perpetual state of conflict. Working class is the real producer of wealth but no matter how much wealth he may produce, the owner of produce get richer. He named the capitalist owner class as Bourgeoisie and called the working class as Proletariat. He also predicted eventually this class struggle will break down the society and eventually the proletariat will control the material resources and there will be a classless society. Besides this wishful thinking he also called upon people to initiate a revolution to take control of means of production.

Mao and Stalin:

Marx provided a blue print towards a classless society that will be but he stood short of stating how the actual revolution will start. However next century produced two revolutionaries who were convinced with Marxism and both started the bloody revolution in their own respective country. It is not known to me if they kept in touch with each other. Mao Tse Tung started bloody revolution by killing royal families in China with his famous quote ‘Peace comes from the barrel of Gun.’ While Stalin started the revolution with killing of entire royal family of Czar in Russia. Both executed all those Bourgeoisie which could have been an obstruction of utopian classless society. People had no second chances. Middle class people like lawyers were executed before firing squad by Stalin who thought them to be parasites. There remained only one political thought in these countries that of communism. Communist Party was the decision making body. No elections of any kind were needed as the Government was of people themselves. Dissent to communist ideology was treason. Decades went by but the classless society remained devised in several classes. Higher echelon of Party Officials. Party workers, Beurocrats and ordinary working class. Former three replaced the top three tiers of so called classless society and policy decisions and means of productions were controlled by first three. Working class was to wear cheap cloth and same food everyday. They got bored and lost ambition to work. At one time slavery like situations prevailed when workers were forced to work under fear of execution by armed forces.

Gradually a corrupt society emerged where, as stated above, new classes had emerged. In these circumstances, Russia chose to discard communism entirely and reverted to democracy in 1990’s but China chose a different path.

China created a hybrid version. Communist party control the nation without any General Election. People of China can own property and material resources but with any political right of governance.

In conclusion both models accepted the colossal failure of the communism.

Communism in India:

Communist agenda was implemented partially by Nehru and Indira but the former was core democrat and letter accepted democracy. Their communist like economic policies were discarded in 1990 by their own party under P.V.Narsimha Rao whom present regime in Congress Party shuns as a pariah from the past. The Communist and Congress party were always cozy. They shared power for five years 2004 to 2008 by supporting Congress. They are allies with congress in Kerala even today. They had hailed Bank Nationalisation by Indira which is a mess as these Banks generate huge losses by way of NPA’s every second decade. The idea was to reach every citizen through banking could not be achieved till 2014. So much for the masses.

Communism has attraction like a religion. It aims to treat everyone equal and provide a road map for that therefore it is appealing to any logical person. But pure logic is often dangerous. Two experiments with communism have failed but a believer concludes that third one will succeed in India. And there are two kind of believers. Violent and non-violent. In the centre the violent ones are Naxalites who are the biggest problem for India after Pakistan sponsored terrorism. In the North there is apprehension of Napalese Maoists.

Now JNU students are of course non-violent ones. But a non-violent communist is a contradiction in terms. Because the communism is founded on presumption that there will be a cry due to excesses of capitalism and at that time the communist party will rebuild the society. Two models of Mao and Stalin went ahead and created anarchy and established order through the barrel of gun.

A pertinent question is how Communist Party of India intends to do it?

Anti India slogans at JNU campus:

As pseudo-intellectuals and pseudo-journalist would like to disconnect the recent anti-India slogan with communist ideology but both are not separate. The means and end are both one.

It is unfortunate that I have not come across a single article connecting the ideology with recent action inspite of ample problem of Naxalites in Chhattisgarh & Jharkhand where writ of Naxalites run in several districts with Govt having no say whatsoever.

It is time to ask right questions from Communist Party of India instead of getting into lint of noisy slogans. How are they going to implement communist manifesto? Does according to any of their literature or study, is it even possible, without dismantling the present structure of society?