April 5, 1957 was a historic day. The first ever communist government was democratically elected to power by voting in Kerala. Why is this a historic landmark? It's strange that nobody has ever asked such a 'silly' question. Before Kerala, there were many communist regimes but the one in Kerala was different because it was the first one to come to power through a due democratic process and the other regimes before it came to power through coercion. Communism is often an anathema to democracy or vice versa. But the fact that communists usually shun democracy and they are attracted to Coup d'etats than democratic processes is something that we learned from Stalin, Castro, Lenin...The communist line was always to capture power through a bloody revolution. This was for the first time rejected by the Kerala communists under EMS.
This was a welcome move by the Communists. After being hammered by the Indian Independence movement, Ambedkar, Gandhi and all the big names, and also being denied space in Indian Polity, there was no other way for the Indian 'left' to survive. The Calcutta Thesis was the last communist line of idea to introduce revolution but it also failed. The attack on the Indian constitution by the communists also happened back then(surprising how the Indian communists are now hailed as the protectors of the same Indian constitution written by Babasaheb Ambedkar). This also invited a lot of criticism.
Finally when all else failed, the communists decided to embrace democracy. Even the communist manifesto says the communists are free to join with any other stream of thought as long as it can instill hostile antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat (Sec IV, Communist Manifesto). Thus it was no moral failure for the communists to use democracy to communism's end. As, power was the agenda, they decided to take their chances and it turned out well.
Now, when we look at the communist party in Kerala, has it finally evolved? has it finally taken in the true ideals of democracy? Nothing's changed as we are in 2020 as the fact that the communists never understood democracy is shown in their devotion and worship to Lenin, Stalin, Castro or any bloody communist leader for that matter. We have party offices which bear their name, their photos. We have party comrades who celebrate their birthdays and keep their photos at home. Now it is not a case of every comrade down in Kerala being a 'Slavoj Zizek' who sarcastically greets his visitors with Stalin's photo upfront. I believe the identity of a communist is rather ambiguous. There is of course no meaning in labeling someone as a good or a bad communist but is it an irony that a communist who believes in the due democratic process also endorses totalitarian rulers like Lenin, Stalin or Castro. As a matter of fact, the terminological argument is evident here!
The big mistake is not with the communists. It is with the liberals, the people who neglected history which helped the communists in making deities out of these leaders. I still remember a stunned classroom when I called Fidel Castro a dictator. I remember their faces, they were really shocked. Still when I address Fidel Castro as a dictator, there are people who simply won't believe it. This is not the communists I'm talking about but rather the people in the Left. The communists have done a great job in placing these undemocratic leaders in the minds of the democratic left. Fidel Castro ruled over Cuba without elections. He was similar to Stalin or Lenin in dealing with dissent. And dissent is something really important in a democracy. Justice D.Y Chandrachud of the Indian Supreme Court observed "dissent is the safety valve of democracy" and this is exactly what the Indian communists are forgetting.
Bertrand Russel, a well known philosopher and Academic wrote in his essay 'Why I am Not a Communist' that,
"I am completely at a loss to understand how it came about that some people who are both humane and intelligent could find something to admire in the vast slave camp produced by Stalin." To my surprise I also found that Russel also wrote a similar essay, 'Why I'm not a christian' and it took him two pages to break communism while it took almost five pages for him to do Christianity. Strange!
What Russel wrote in that essay should be exactly what the Indian left should ask themselves. This is happening because the communists had succeeded in placing these leaders way up as saints. As history proves, they were no saints. At a time when the Sangh is trying to sell lies in the form of history, we also have the Indian communists trying to do the same. Either the communists have to reject the undemocratic bloodline of these leaders or they should stick on to being a communist by rejecting democracy. As long as the communists won't do it, all we have here is a hypocritical oath from the communists to save democracy.
For an individual in the left, this also causes an identity crisis as calling oneself a communist has its own impact, negative, of course. This is also a question of political correctness too...For example, When the communist party still worshiping leaders like Lenin, Stalin and Castro fights for the queer cause, its an embarrassment. It is like calling yourself a Nazi and helping out the Jew community (Castro and Stalin saw the queer community as an imperfection). As long as the Indian communists worship Lenin, Stalin, Castro, their slogans of freedom and democracy are only a lie.
When we look at the Global left - the many leaders who represent left globally, be it Jeremy Corbyn or Bernie Sanders, they have maintained clear distance from these totalitarian past of communism. They have condemned it many times. At a time when the global left is fighting for a better future, the Indian communists are reminding all of us of communism's bloody past through their endorsements. Next time when someone says I'm a communist I want him/her/them to shudder at the prospect of the cruelty meted out to the people by these cruel communist leaders.
Last month, The Indian Express also featured a similar article and many writers like Ramchandra Guha shared the article. That particular article from Express was a suggestion in good faith to replace Lenin/Stalin with Julius Martov/Rosa Luxemburg who are more apt for the global left and its democratic principles. I hope the Indian communists would reconsider their position on the totalitarian leaders that they are holding in high regard. It is a timely appeal to the left and if this goes unheeded, then the fight against undemocratic forces has to be without the communists.
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