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| May 15, 2000 | ||
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| RIGHT ANGLE Voices of Capitulation Don't be fooled by the bluster, the Left has conceded defeat By Swapan Dasgupta
To those who care to observe, it is obvious that as an international force the Left is teetering on the brink of irrelevance. It may still cling on to patches of influence in some Indian and North American universities, but it has lost its ability to set the agenda. Terms like nationalisation, collectivisation and democratic centralism that used to engage countless generations in the past century are rarely heard in polite circles. The "final crisis of capitalism", a phrase bandied about since the Second International split in 1914, is an event still waiting to happen. "The only starting point for a realistic Left today," wrote Perry Anderson, editor of the redoubtable New Left Review in its latest issue, "is a lucid registration of historical defeat." Anderson wasn't merely referring to the shifting sands of international relations. He was acknowledging the Left's utter inability to contest the march of capitalism in the realm of ideas. "The doctrines of the Right that have theorised capitalism as a systemic order retain their tough-minded strength; current attempts by a self-styled radical Centre to dress up its realities are by comparison little more than weak public relations." It's an indictment that is even beginning to be internalised in the otherwise sanctimonious world of the Indian Left. The venerable Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), once a standard bearer of establishment socialism, offended the dogmatic faithful by endorsing the Insurance Bill and charging its detractors with "political opportunism" and being "opposed to all change and innovation". Reacting with horror, three Jawaharlal Nehru University economists, including Abhijit Sen who, incidentally, doubles up as the chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, wrote about this being "just another instance of an increasingly stark and inexplicable move towards current conventional thinking". A move quite unbecoming of EPW which "has consistently provided alternative positions for those who question the mainstream or elitist perspective". At one level, Sen and his colleagues weren't wrong. In 1991, economic historian Dharma Kumar had protested against the ideological regimentation of EPW. Her contention was met with a volley of political correctness. This time, however, the orthodoxy has found little support. In a letter, economist Deena Khatkhate captured the new mood: "EPW editorials in the last two years have been liberated from the irrational dogmatism and unverified assertions of the so-called unconventional thinkers. Not to change when the objective reality dictates change is to reveal an infirmity of mind." Which is why the Government needn't give respectability to the voluble but pro forma protests against the dismantling of the socialist ancien regime. A bankrupt Left is on the run. One more push and it's history. |
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The
cutthroat world of marketing loves a good anniversary, some real and
others quite contrived. Yet, there was a delicious irony in the western
media going to town over the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon to the
Vietcong in the very week that witnessed May Day being reduced to a
monumental anarchist brawl in London and New York. From the heady
East-is-Red moment of 1975 to the desecration of the Cenotaph in Whitehall
last week, the Left has come a very long way. Never mind being the
harbinger of a new order, it has now become a safe haven for fun-seeking
dropouts. So much so that even British Prime Minister Tony Blair didn't
balk at calling the participants of London's anti-capitalist rally
"these idiots".