CPC centennial: Uncritical endorsement of China by Indian comrades betrays 20th c mindset

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Thiruvananthapuram: Singing paean to the Communist Party of China (CPC) in its centenary, Indian Communist leadership appears to betray the mid-20th century mindset of uncritical endorsement of the socialist order of the day.

Though Communist Internationalism has long faded into history, it seems to be in the order of things for the Communist party of any country to rejoice in the impressive strides made by China under the CPC.

Steered to liberation under the helmsmanship of Mao Zedong and other flag-bearers of the Chinese revolution, the progress made by the world’s most populous country since 1949 has been remarkable. The success story of the Asian giant would undoubtedly be an inspiring one for the Communists movement the world over. Particularly so for the Indian Communist movement, when it is struggling to survive after being relegated to a few, and far between, pockets.

Befitting the occasion, senior CPI (M) leaders, including general secretary Sitaram Yechury, have come out with articles lavishing praises on the CPC in mainstream media as well as the party journals. The CPI seems to be less enthusiastic, leaving it to the functionaries down the rungs to make note of the occasion.

But other than advancing the “feel good” narrative about China, none of these is an independent, let alone critical, appraisal of the socialist experience of that country, and its lessons for the Marxist-Leninist movements in India and the rest of the world.

It is noteworthy that the centennial of CPC coincides with the 100th year of the founding of the Indian Communist movement. So, this would have been the right occasion to reflect on the experiences of the Communist movements in two countries. Such an attempt would help draw some broad conclusions on how the Indian party failed to make a significant mark in our multi-party parliamentary democracy while China forged ahead, after its paradigm shift to ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’, overcoming the disastrous slide under Mao’s stewardship.

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Sticking to their overly congratulatory tone, they have conveniently skipped the pain points in India-China relations. They are also silent on the aggressive posturing of China on the borders with India and the geostrategic consequences of the increasing Sino-Pak convergence in South Asia.

This could also have been an opportunity to have a self-critical re-look at the 1964 split in the Indian Communist Party and the China factor that exacerbated the divide. Now that the Indian CPs are no longer bound by the oversight of any big brother, they could also have a self-critical evaluation of positions of various factions during the 1962 Chinese aggression against India.

It is not surprising that the Indian Communist leadership opts to evade any mention of international concern over alleged human rights issues in China, such as the highhanded dealing of dissenters and ethnic minorities. Their thinking could be that going into such delicate matters would dampen the celebratory mood the occasion calls for.

While avoiding such live issues there is full-throated praise of the economic and social reform process that made China grow exponentially since 1979.

This bold shift, one senior party leader writes, started under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping and being taken forward by Xi Jinping albeit reassertion of the centrality of the party, has made China emerge a world power, and even would edge out the United States soon.

This radical departure aimed at wealth creation and its rational distribution by opening up agriculture, industry, science & technology and allowing massive foreign investment, made China come out of all-around recession and the repressive milieu left by the debilitating experiments like “great leap forward” and “cultural revolution” under Mao. In short, the 1979 shift marked a watershed in China’s journey as did the socialist revolution in the mid-20th century save the nation from imperial humiliation and disintegration.

What is surprising, however, is that this full-throated praise of China’s social and economic liberalisation by the Indian CPs sharply contradicts their red-flagging of the Indian economic liberalisation process set in motion in the 1990s under the leadership of Narasimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh!

Except for some original thinkers like M N Roy, stalwarts of the Indian Communist movement had tended to turn a blind eye to ideological deviations and gross human rights violations in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin or China under Mao. This had seriously lowered the image of the Indian Left in the estimation of their Western counterparts, who, in their advocacy of a democratic and humanistic socialist model had distanced themselves from the authoritarian Soviet and Chinese regimes, long before the decline and fall of the once-mighty socialist block.