Let's hear it from the horse's mouth. The key message seems to be: Wait and watch. That appears to be quite sensible.
Sukla http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/interviews/aap-did-what-cpm-wanted-to-do-prakash-karat/articleshow/28492812.cms AAP did what CPM wanted to do: Prakash Karat By Nistula Hebbar, ET Bureau | 7 Jan, 2014, 08.06AM IST *For long, the fulcrum of the non-Congress, non-BJP formations, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has been observing the emergence of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) with some interest. In a wide ranging interview with Nistula Hebbar, party general secretary Prakash Karat speaks on AAP, austerity and why he feels the nuclear deal was the Prime Minister's worst hour.* *The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been able to successfully tap into the working classes. Shouldn't your party have done so? It would be right to say that the AAP started off as a middle-class phenomenon, especially on the anti-corruption movement plank. They have taken up other issues of working people in Delhi; that is what has given them the mass influence. But it is a party which hasn't still evolved a clear-cut programme and policy perspective. Right now, it means all things to all people, so we have to wait and see how exactly they shape it. We are getting individual views of their leaders occasionally. One says neither Left nor Right applies to Indian conditions, another says he doesn't believe in ideology. Yet, a common refrain is that they reject all parties across the spectrum. But since now they want to be on the national stage, they will have to come up with a programme and a set of policies which they feel will help tackle the country's problems. Hasn't the Left lost out in this situation? In a place like Delhi, where traditionally the Left has not been a significant force, they (AAP) have appealed and got the support of a section of working people. The industrial working class in the city is now a minor force. I don't think, however, that where the Left is strong and has organisational backing, the AAP will have the same appeal. Is your party's revolutionary communist programme a hindrance to the politics of mass movement? We have been grappling with the problem of how to relate to the middle class particularly after the era of liberalisation. The Left has faced this problem particularly in the last two decades or so. So, it is more about how we connect with the middle class on issues that are important to them. The interesting point about the AAP has been that they have been able to attract the middle classes to politics in a metropolitan city like Delhi. It hasn't happened before and is a novel phenomenon. The CPI (M) has had a long tradition of austerity in public. So how come the AAP seems to have hijacked that narrative too? It's not a question of austerity, it's a question of a party which works and identifies with the people. We expect our leaders to live as the common people do or at least practise the lifestyle of the common people. In that sense, the communist party has always stood out. That hasn't changed. Serious allegations have, however, been made by a former CPI (M) member in a recent editorial in a newspaper about action taken against leaders who spoke out against corrupt practices in the party. The action taken against these leaders was not because they spoke out against corruption, but because of other acts of indiscipline. And, however high the leader is, we have the same standards in our party. So, whether it is a member of the Politburo or a branch of the party, we have a discipline which is applicable to all. The instances cited of action taken against senior leaders don't stem from the fact that they spoke out against corruption. Why has the CPI (M) not been engaged with caste politics, which definitely affects your prospects in the Hindi belt? It's again incorrect to say that we don't engage with caste. It is a reality in India and if you are a political party you have to deal with it. What we do, given our Marxist approach, is to relate caste and class, and then work out our attitude to it. For example, if you are building up a movement on the condition of agricultural workers in India, you cannot but relate it to the question of Dalits and their social oppression, since a bulk of these workers are Dalits. If you are taking up the cause of vast masses of agricultural peasantry, you have to deal with the backward classes. Where we have succeeded in doing that, we have grown; in others, especially in Hindi speaking regions, we haven't succeeded. We are not avoiding it, since that will take us nowhere. * -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
