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The Young Fanatic

Who is S Ramachandra Pillai? Ninety per cent of his own party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist, can't identify him. Nevertheless, Pillai stands for a body of opinion that could have a decisive influence on Indian politics.

Ramachandra Pillai is a member of the CPI-M politburo, one of the younger lot in that collection of dinosaurs. What makes him interesting is that he has taken up arms against his elders.

Back in March, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, general secretary of the CPI-M, vowed to support the Congress if it formed an anti-BJP ministry. But nobody in the Congress takes Surjeet very seriously.

It is a different matter when Jyoti Basu, the veteran who led the Left Front to power in Bengal in five successive elections, offers "issue-based support" to Sonia Gandhi if someone engineers the fall of the A B Vajpayee ministry. Or is it?

Here is where Pillai enters. He openly criticises Basu for making the offer. He has even questioned the West Bengal chief minister's right to explore the possibility of an anti-BJP, Congress-led coalition government.

It says much for the 'democratic' functioning of the Marxists that an unknown party hack like Pillai can take on a man who has proved his worth in so many polls! But the point is that Pillai would never have dared to speak unless supported by others. Pillai's backers are cut from the same cloth, that is they are all (relatively) young fanatics.

You could see the generation gap open in May 1996 as the Third Front struggled to replace the P V Narasimha Rao ministry. Their first candidate for prime minister was Jyoti Basu. But the offer was firmly declined by the youngsters in the politburo and the central committee -- decisions denounced by a bitter Basu as a "historic blunder."

Both the Basu-Surjeet duo and their younger comrades make a persuasive case. There is no alternative to the BJP in Delhi unless the Left and the Congress co-operate. But the hardliners argue that it is the Congress that is their major foe in the Marxist bastions of Bengal, Kerala, and Tripura. (This isn't true of Bengal thanks to the Trinamul Congress-BJP alliance.)

Such internal turmoil emboldens the Left Front partners to question Big Brother's writ. The Forward Bloc and the RSP have already openly refused to support any Congress-led ministry. And the CPI's pre-condition to supporting the Congress is a reversal of Dr Manmohan Singh's reforms!

If the CPI-M can't see eye to eye with its Left Front partners, is there any party with which it can ally? The Marxists have successively broken with Laloo Prasad Yadav, the Telugu Desam Party, and the National Conference. And with Mulayam Singh Yadav choosing to join his fellow Yadav's Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, the United Front has disintegrated.

Finding new partners is tough given the CPI-M's compulsions. It opposes the nuclear tests, thereby flying in the face of overwhelming public approval. Afraid of reigning the Gorkhaland issue in Bengal, the party opposes the creation of the new states of Uttarakhand, Vananchal, and Chattisgarh, thus annoying even more voters.

Of course, those areas aren't Communist strongholds. But that begs the question why the Marxists failed to get a foothold outside a limited area. After all, the undivided CPI was the main opposition party after the first Lok Sabha elections, outstripping the Jan Sangh (parent party of the BJP). But the Left then found itself in a rut, even as the Jan Sangh/ BJP grew in stature. Small wonder if the party veterans are willing to clutch at any straw to come to power.

A year ago Surjeet was hailed as the "Chanakya of Indian Politics". The bureaucracy danced around him and prime ministers sought his advice. Today, he is little more than an older version of Dr Subramaniam Swamy. He plots, but only from the sidelines.

In a sense, Surjeet is worse off. Jayalalitha listens to Subramaniam Swamy from time to time. The CPI-M general secretary can't get his own party to give ear.

"God save me from my friends," Voltaire sighed, "I can take care of my enemies." Surjeet and Basu probably share the French philosopher's sentiments, atheists though they are.

The party line on Heaven was laid down by Marx himself, who declared that "religion is the opiate of the masses." Exactly a century-and-a-half after the publication of The Communist Manifesto, Comrade Marx's Indian disciples find that it is hopes of ruling from Delhi that are the true pipe dream!

T V R Shenoy