THE RISE AND FALL OF THE LEFT
Calcutta thesis
The second CPI congress in Calcutta in February 1948 adopted “Calcutta Thesis”, with a call to take up arms. Later a party delegation went to Moscow and met Joseph Stalin. Subsequently, the party held a special congress in Calcutta in 1951 and the dumped Calcutta Thesis.
CPI SPLIT 1964
Differences over relationship with the Congress split the CPI in 1964. At the CPI national council in Delhi, 32 members, including V S Achuthanandan, walked out to form the “real communist party”. Thus was born the CPM. It became the main Communist party, entrenched in Left strongholds of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura.
CPM-BJP breakfast camaraderie 1989-90
CPM aligned with BJP, extending outside support to United Front Government, led by V P Singh, in 1989-90. CPM general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and BJP leaders, including L K Advani, met over breakfast almost on a weekly basis. But BJP withdrew support in October 1990 over Ram Mandir
‘If Left wants to go, so be it’
On August 11, 2007 then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dropped a bombshell: "I told (Left parties) that it is not possible to renegotiate the deal (with US). It is an honourable deal, the Cabinet has approved it, we cannot go back on it... if they want to withdraw support, so be it”. That was over the nuclear deal. It ended Left support for UPA.
Historic blunder
Former Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu would have become Prime Minister in 1996. However, the Prakash Karat-led brigade threw a spanner in the works. They argued CPM will be lame and dependent on bourgeois parties, especially the Congress, to survive a multi-party regime and will not have the strength to execute pet CPM policies. Basu gave up, but termed it “historic blunder.”
CPI soft towards the Congress
The CPI began to reconsider its approach to the Congress in the late1970s. CPI extended support to Indira Gandhi's Congress, but developed second thoughts after the 1977 post-Emergency defeat. It soon gravitated to the CPM. But, of late, CPI has reverted to a soft line towards the Congress in a broad understanding against BJP.