Communist Party of India (Marxist)

19^th Congress

Anil Biswas Nagar

Coimbatore

March 29 to April 3, 2008

Opening Speech by Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), at the Inaugural Session of the 19^th Congress

Dear Comrade Pandhe, President of this Inaugural Session!

Comrade Delegates and Observers!

Dear Comrade A. B. Bardhan!

Fraternal Delegates from Abroad!

Distinguished Guests and Friends!

I extend a warm welcome to all of you on the occasion of the 19^th Congress of our Party. My warm greetings to all the delegates and observers attending the Congress. Let me express our gratitude to all the representatives of the fraternal parties from abroad for attending the Congress.  I welcome Comrade Bardhan, with whom I was recently at the Congress of the CPI.

We are holding our Party Congress for the first time in Coimbatore. It is a city which is a major industrial hub and an important centre of the working class movement.  We remember the long history of the trade union movement and the innumerable Communist leaders who were reared by this movement.  K. Ramani was one such prominent leader who passed away two years ago.  R. Umanath is another important leader associated with the movement in Coimbatore who is with us today.

This is the third Congress of the CPI(M) to be held in the state of Tamilnadu.  We recall here the big contributions made by leaders like P. Jeevanandam, P, Ramamurthi, M. R. Venkataraman, A. Balasubramaniam  and A. Nallasivan to the development of the Communist movement in Tamilnadu and the country.

I salute the 218 martyrs of the Party and the movement who were killed in the last three years.  We shall always cherish their memory.

Today is the 65^th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Kayyur martyrs. It was on 29^th March, 65 years ago, that four brave Communists of Kayyur, situated in North Malabar, went to the gallows in 1943 shouting ‘Communist Party Zindabad’  and ‘Inquilab Zindabad’.  These were the first Communists to be hanged by the British in India.  This is the precious legacy of the Communist Party. Its martyrs emblazon the anti-imperialist firmament. Right from 1922, the fledgling Communist Party was sought to be suppressed by a series of Communist conspiracy cases. Whether they were Communists imprisoned in the cellular jail in the Andamans or those who suffered torture in innumerable other jails, they never gave up. 

During the inaugural session of the 18^th Congress held in Delhi, we had asked of the BJP leadership : can you produce one single leader who can match the anti-imperialist pedigree of the thousands in our ranks?  There was no answer from them, since there are none. 

There is a straight line from the Kayyur martyrs of 1943 to the staunch anti-imperialist stance of the Party today. 

We see the world  from this anti-imperialist perspective.  It is five years since the United States invaded and occupied Iraq.  Five years of devastation, of a million killed and maimed.  The lies and deceit of  President Bush and his cohorts stand fully exposed as Iraq’s oil resources are open to their loot and plunder.  At no time has the US been so isolated and hated except when it waged its criminal war on Vietnam.  Today, the world  demands an immediate withdrawal of all American troops from Iraq, so that the Iraqi people can begin rebuilding their lives and their country.

There is another brutal occupation that has been in place in the region – an  older colonial land grab by Israel, who is mentored and protected by the US.  The atrocities in Gaza parallel   the imperialist aggression in Iraq.  We express our firm solidarity with the Palestinian people. I am glad that our Party raised a fund of Rs. 13.67 million, i.e., Rs. 1 crore 36 lakhs, in solidarity with Palestine in 2006 - the biggest single fund raised for international solidarity by our Party.

The forces against imperialist  globalisation and imperialist aggression have been gathering strength.  The Latin American continent has seen many struggles in defence of national sovereignty and against neo-liberal policies. We hail the advances of the Left and progressive forces in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Brazil and other places. 

Cuba is the powerful inspiration for all those seeking a new just order.  We warmly greet the people and the Communist Party of Cuba who are resolved to go forward on the path blazed by the outstanding revolutionary Fidel Castro Ruz. 

We are happy with the developing relations between India and China. We have close ties and cooperation with Vietnam.  Both these socialist countries are making remarkable economic progress and improving the well-being of their peoples. 

The global economy is being shaken by the onset of a recession in the United States and the financial crisis which is spreading around the world.  For our leaders in government who talked of releasing the “animal spirits” and argue now for full capital account convertibility, we hope the current  crisis will provide some sobering lessons.  It is a sad fact that many, in the ruling establishment, believe that the United States will help us to become a major world power. It is this flawed outlook that has led to the hankering in our ruling classes for a strategic alliance with the United States.  The UPA government has pursued what was begun by the BJP-led government. The only difference is that the brash “natural ally” of the US has now been converted into a demure “strategic partner”.

The CPI(M) can take legitimate credit for bringing foreign policy and strategic matters on to the centre-stage  of Indian politics.  Ever since the joint statement of July 2005 announcing the “strategic partnership”, the CPI(M) understood that what was being touted was nothing but a wholesale shift in our foreign policy and strategic perspective.  We had to confront this challenge soon after our last Congress.  The defence framework agreement and the nuclear cooperation agreement are parts off an overarching alliance.  The CPI(M) and the Left have already declared that the nuclear deal cannot go forward.  The majority in Parliament is against it.

But our task is not over.  We have to undo the military collaboration agreement. We have to continue the struggle to disentangle India from the strategic embrace of the United States. This is important not only for India but for the whole of South Asia.  We appeal to all the progressive and democratic forces in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka to join with us in fighting back the growing imperialist penetration in our region.

The CPI(M) continues to address the menace of communalism in the country.  The BJP was ousted from government, but the RSS and its outfits continue their hate campaign against the minorities. Every issue, whether it be terrorism, social problems, culture or politics, is viewed from the communal sectarian viewpoint.  The vision of India shared by all the secular, democratic and Left forces is  the very antithesis of the Hindutva outlook.  One needs to remember the prescient words of Jawaharlal Nehru in this connection:

“When the minority communities are communal, you can see that and understand it. But the communalism of a majority community is apt to be taken for nationalism”.

Cultural nationalism are only the code words for the Hindu Rashtra of the RSS. 

The CPI(M) has been fighting the BJP politically and ideologically.  That is why the RSS and the BJP mark out the CPI(M) for their ire and vent it in violent ways.  On its part, the CPI(M) will work for a broad based mobilization against the communal forces.  The Party Congress will work out appropriate tactics to isolate the BJP and to prevent any opportunistic line up of parties around it for electoral gains.  While doing so, the Party will also counter the fundamentalist and extremist elements in the minority community. 

It is nearly four years since the UPA government took office.  We had supported this government with the imperative of keeping the communal forces at bay.  We had also wanted the secular government to adopt policies which meet thee expectations of the people.  The Congress-led government believes in economic policies which benefit big business and the affluent. Yet, it committed to certain pro-people measures in the Common Minimum Programme. In the past three years, it has been our endeavour to get some of these adopted as legislation and implemented. But the overall thrust has been of liberalization and privatization.  As enjoined by our Party Congress in 2005,  we have played an important role.  We have not hesitated to criticize and oppose policy measures which detract from economic sovereignty and the people’s interests. 

The UPA government has not been able to convince the Left, why they need to handover Indian private banks to foreign banks, or open up the insurance sector further to FDI. How is FDI in retail trade beneficial to the country when it will lead to the loss of livelihood for millions of shopkeepers and traders?  Is putting pension funds of government employees in the stock market, the best way to ensure social security? Why can’t the government strengthen the public distribution system by restoring the universal system?

The UPA government has failed to address two major problems – the agrarian crisis and the price rise of essential commodities.  The recent loan waiver scheme for farmers can provide limited relief if it is  suitably modified.  But the basic problem is that agriculture is becoming unremunerative for farmers for a variety of reasons. 

We are all the more convinced that the nature and trajectory of growth is wrong.  We do not want the spectacle of the ranks of the dollar billionaires growing in our country amidst suicides by farmers, growing unemployment and reduced per capita consumption of foodgrains in the country.

The Left parties have set forth a series of alternative policy measures in the past four years.  They should become the building blocks for an alternative platform.  Such a platform should give prominence to the fight against caste oppression, discrimination against women and protecting the rights of the advasis and minorities. 

The CPI(M) has been attacked and maligned for its opposition to the strategic alliance with the US and for its opposition to neo-liberal economic policies.  We plead guilty to both charges. In fact, we are proud of our record in these matters.

If it were not for the CPI(M) and the Left, the nuclear deal would by now have been wrapped up after the adoption of the 123 agreement in the US Congress. If it were not for the CPI(M) and the Left, the neo-liberal measures would have been pushed through with more vigour. Disinvestment and privatization of the most profitable PSUs.  The passing of control of the financial sector to foreign capital, the invasion of the FDI into retail trade, higher education and other services.  The privatization of pension funds and dilution of labour laws.  All these have not happened.  The CPI(M) has acted as sentinels of the people’s interests. 

We have registered some gains with the struggles and movements of the working people in the past three years.  The Party Congress will discuss how we can take the mass movements and popular struggles forward in a more intensive and widespread manner in the coming days. 

The need for a third alternative is being felt all the more.  This, as our Party has explained, should be based on an alternative platform of policies. It cannot be merely an electoral alliance.  We have learnt from the experience of earlier  formations such as the United Front of 1996-98 in which the CPI(M) played an important role.  There are democratic and secular parties who can agree with the Left on pro-people economic policies, on social justice measures and an independent foreign policy.  Such a platform will be irrevocably anti-communal in character.  The Party Congress will deliberate on how to proceed in this direction.

An important agenda of the Congress is our organizational work. For a Communist Party, the organization based on Communist discipline and norms is paramount.  We have tens of thousands of selfless workers.  We have grown in terms of membership and the influence of the mass organizations.  But we need to grow more.  The expansion of the Party is essential if we want to build a strong Left and democratic movement.  The people of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura have reposed great confidence in our Party.  The recent spectacular victory of the Left Front in Tripura has completed the circle  of unprecedented electoral successes in West Bengal and Kerala.  The CPI(M) has been the innovator of a unique experience, running Left-led state governments within a bourgeois-landlord system under the constraint of severely limited powers for the state governments.  This experiment has led to seven successive election victories and an unbroken thirty year stint in government for the Left Front in West Bengal. The superb election victory in Tripura has ushered in a fourth successive term for the Left Front government. The Congress will discuss the role and experience of the Left-led state governments. 

Finally,  when we embark on the work of the Congress, we miss the presence of our two stalwarts – Jyoti Basu and Harkishan Singh Surjeet – the only living members of the original nine member Polit Bureau of the Party.  Comrade Jyoti Basu has sent a message for the Congress.  They are not here physically, but they are with us in spirit and comradeship.  We wish them well and a long life. 

The CPI(M) constantly strives to creatively apply Marxism to the concrete conditions of Indian society.  This guides in our struggle for the social and economic emancipation of the Indian people.  It inspires our endeavours for a united and secular India based on a socially just order.