Gorby remains a ‘renegade’ for Indian comrades steeped in classical Marxist doctrines

@the_news_21

Thiruvananthapuram: Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, who presided over the collapse of the mighty Soviet Union, has always been a hated figure for the Indian communists. Steeped in classical Marxist doctrines, the Indian communist leadership feared that the emergence of democratic-liberal socialist order would only mar the prospects of strengthening the movement in the country.

His death earlier this week came as no moment for the comrades to give even a benefit of doubt to Gorbachev, who went down as remarkable a figure in modern history as the pioneers of the Bolshevik revolution that ushered in the socialist bloc, which remained the opposite pole of the west in the 20th century Cold War era.

The gleanings from the Left press and Marxist commentators following Gorbachev’s death make it obvious that he continues to be seen as a ‘renegade’, who not only scripted the obituary of the Soviet Union and the East European socialist bloc, but also inflicted a grim blow to the credibility of the Marxist-Leninist movements the world over.

Though the leadership of the two mainstream communist parties, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and the Communist Party of India (CPI), had not issued any official statement at the death of Gorbachev, reportage and comments in the Left press held him singularly responsible for undermining the first and foremost socialist republic.

According to them, though he started as a communist, and steadily rose to the highest rungs of the party, the process of Reform (Perestroika) and Openness (Glasnost) initiated by Gorbachev soon after he became the president of the Soviet Union went against the basic Marxist ideas and their Leninist application.

“He will be remembered for his lack of sagacity and defective politics that led to the crash of the Soviet Union. Of course, as the general secretary of the soviet communist party, he should have corrected the deviations that had crept into the system. But instead of curing the affliction, his decisions only worsened the disease, ultimately leading to the patient’s death. In the final assessment, he will be remembered in history as a leader who betrayed a great political experiment”, said a senior CPI(M) leader in a social media comment.

The commentaries in the Left press held Gorbachev as a ‘failed leader’ as the cold war he strove to bring to an end continues to haunt the world in changed forms.

Gorbachev’s reign saw the India-Soviet relations scaling to new heights. The Soviet leader maintained great personal rapport with the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. But even at that time the Indian communist parties tended to view the reforms Gorbachev initiated suspiciously.