Idle Ruminations of an Incurable Freak

Last week I was in Mumbai. While traveling in a local train, I noticed this strange (to say the least) pamphlet -- or rather a leaflet, the kind you see posted on a local train -- which said, in essence -- "Shun the elections, Join the revolution". The undersigned were: Communist Party of India (Marxist - Leninist).

Of course, they're not the only party advocating people to shun the elections -- they're in a good company, the great Hurriyat Conference! But that's a digression. This is a basic rejection of the Indian constitution. Not that it is surprising coming from communists -- they have had a history of negating the very idea of India, of strong affinity to external legacy, etc. But the matter of fact rejection of elections -- and mind you these aren't elections that are run on a gun-point, or rigged by the party in power, or anything like that -- is eerie.

Ironically, these very people take moral highroad in any political debate -- when they're against the founding principals of Indian constitution. Of course, it's their utter frustration because of a prolonged and multi-point failure which gives rise to such excesses.

• dismal record in governance, economy, human rights
• lack of penetration in most states of the India
• the global failure of Marxism/communism on all counts
• loosening of the grip on the intellectual scenario, which is going to get worse, with the ubiquity of Internet

It's hard to keep on taking blows on after another, and keep one's sanity, as an individual or as an organization or as a pseudo-political party. But I suspect these slogans are essentially what Marxist/Communist rhetoric is all about, right from the start. It's just that Indians, cannot seriously believe that someone in their sane mind can say a thing like that. (Hurriyat, of course, was never taken seriously anyways ;-)).

Problem isn't with CPI-ML. The problem is with India, where some party which does not believe in the fundamental device of democracy is allowed to contest elections! It's the ultimate Indian fallacy -- of being so inclusive that even the exclusivists are warmly embraced. If anything needs to be shunned, it's the exclusivists.