Indian Communists Hold Fourth Congress
BHARGAVA, G. S.
Indian Communists Hold Fourth Congress By G. S. Bhargava Palghat The Indian Communist party recently held its Fourth Congress in this tiny South Indian town and emerged with a completely new...
...To be sure, the Communists are realistic enough to concentrate their efforts on the Congress party rather than the motley opposition...
...Indian Communists Hold Fourth Congress By G. S. Bhargava Palghat The Indian Communist party recently held its Fourth Congress in this tiny South Indian town and emerged with a completely new line: Socialists are no longer to be fought as "social fascists...
...Now, whoever accepts the party's minimum program can be admitted into the "alternate government...
...He urged the Communists to make common cause with the former, purge the latter and ultimately, in order to achieve the goal of a "people's democracy," to displace the erstwhile ally...
...Thus the aim is to wrest the initiative in formulating foreign policy from Nehru's hands...
...Joshi took exception to this attitude and, after listing the "progressive trends" in the Government's domestic policies, said the "progressive" section of the bourgeoisie was carrying them out "in the teeth of opposition from the pro-imperialists...
...In fact, the Travancore-Cochin party unit recently decided to re-examine its tactics in the light of past experience...
...Similarly, by proposing to conduct "struggles" in support of popular demands, they hope to make common cause with opposition parties...
...For, according to Joshi, "a national campaign for the consistent application of Nehru's present policies...
...Nevertheless, the resolution also talks of "some Congress leaders seldom speaking against the military pacts that menace Indian freedom," and "the refusal of the Congress leadership to join hands with other parties and organizations for a common movement for peace...
...If this still fails to insure a majority, overtures will be made to the Congress party, or at least a section of it, on the basis of a minimum program...
...Even the communal parties, which once merited wholesale denunciation, are to be treated differently...
...The latter is clearly a further concession to Joshi's theory that there is a division in the bourgeoisie between the "progressives" led by Nehru and the "pro-feudal, pro-monopoly and pro-imperialist" elements headed by West Bengal's septuagenarian Chief Minister, Bidhan Chandra Roy, and the Union, Commerce and Industries Minister, T. T. Krishnamachari...
...Finally, the resolution talks of "an alternate government capable of carrying out a minimum program" as a "practical slogan in the states where democratic forces are strong...
...Reluctant praise of the Government's foreign policy has been replaced by the claim that "the years that have passed and the shifts that have taken place in the Government's foreign policy have vindicated the line of the party...
...When asked whether this would necessarily be a non-Congress government, an official party spokesman replied, "Not necessarily...
...Last June, the Communist leadership described this policy as "in the main, reactionary and undemocratic...
...The latest Communist attitude to the Government's domestic policies is an even more open concession to the Joshi line...
...Embittered by the Socialists' rebuff and aware that there has been no basic change in their attitude, the Communists are now thinking of teaming up with the ruling party...
...Experience confirms the Communist belief...
...The resolution adopted at Palghat reflects the party's acceptance of Joshi's philosophy...
...By their decision to participate "actively and effectively" in projects run by the Government, for example, the Communists hope to overcome the hostility of the Congress party's rank and file and draw it into a "united front...
...The "masses and individuals" following them are to be drawn into "common struggle and common activity...
...The Communists are confident that many Congress people will be taken in by this approach because the alternative will be a stalemate...
...In the strategic state of Travancore-Cochin, for example, the Communists have repeatedly failed to pull the Socialists into a coalition in order to re-enact the Czech coup of 1948...
...In both the '52 and '54 elections, the Congress party was badly mauled in the state but no party emerged with an overall majority...
...Now the two wings of the Socialist movement are described as "parties of democratic opposition," and their members are considered "socialist-minded...
...if successfully organized...
...To fully understand this shift by the Communists, one has to view it against the background of the party's previous unsuccessful maneuvers...
...Nehru's ruling Congress party and Government are credited with having the support of "democratic forces...
...They realize that it will remain in power as long as Nehru is its leader, and that it has been consolidating its position of late at the expense of the other parties...
...The new Communist strategy, of course, demands a "soft" overall policy...
...What is more, they are aware of the fact that the Congress party is not difficult to penetrate...
...Thus the new strategy amounts to this: First, attempts will be made to avoid triangular contests with the ruling party through adjustments with other opposition parties...
...This explains why P. C. Joshi, right-wing Communist leader who was supported by only 130 of the 411 delegates at the conference, succeeded in having his policies adopted almost in toto...
...A consistent peace policy cannot be pursued by any bourgeois government that retains links with imperialism, but needs an alternative people's democratic government...
...can lead to a purge of the pro-imperialists from the Government...
...And what is envisaged is not merely a popular front with one party or group but a honeymoon with everyone on the political horizon...
...Thus the Palghat resolution, instead of condemning Nehru's entire home policy, "demands support of all those measures of the Government which weaken the position of imperialism and feudalism, curb monopoly and strengthen the national economy...
...Nor is the Nehru Administration to be branded a "government of national surrender," as it was during the abortive insurrection launched in 1948...
...This replaces last year's slogan calling for "a government of democratic unity," which precluded participation of the Congress party even hypothetically because it was not then credited with the support of "democratic forces" and the emphasis was on the Government's composition, not its program...
Vol. 39 • June 1956 • No. 24
