Third Alternative---The Marxists' romantic illusion | Girish Nikam

Published on 21-01-2008 In National

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Third Alternative---The Marxists' romantic illusion

Is a third alternative possible in this country? This is a question which needs re-visiting now, in the background of the CPI (M) repeatedly talking about building one, and have even put it up as a major issue to be discussed at its 19 th party congress to be held in Coimbatore in the last week of March. Let us first look at what the CPI (M) considers as a third alternative (mind you not third front). According to the draft political resolution prepared for the 19 th Congress, its summarised view is; it is not just an electoral alliance, it has to comprise of left, democratic and secular forces and these forces should have a consistent anti-communal outlook.

Elsewhere in the resolution, the party also recognises the growing influence of BSP, and its caste identity-based mobilisation and how it is going to pose a serious threat at the national level as it builds caste combinations. The party also acknowledges that this poses a serious threat to the left forces, which has consistently rejected caste as a factor and has always believed in a platform of oppressed sections of all communities, and by "taking up a combination of class issues and social questions, the pernicious effects of caste fragmentation can be countered".

Of course, the other major platform for the third alternative is the economic platform, where the party is completely opposed to the neo-liberal policies, which according to it, is aimed at the rich and thereby widening the gap between the rich and the poor. Now this is the basis on which the third alternative of the CPI (M), which its General Secretary Prakash Karat, has been advocating repeatedly in the last few months.

In all fairness to the Marxists, they don't see it as something, which can happen overnight, though the media gets excited every time there is a talk of it, and gets into simple seat calculations. Even giving it to them that it is a long and arduous process, where it is not just electoral alliance but a change in mindset of the participating parties, which will build a durable platform, is it a feasible and workable idea?

Now when there is a talk of third alternative, one has to look at which is the first and second. Obviously, it is the Congress and BJP. The question which immediately crops up is are these two parties really the first and second alternative in this country, and even if they are now, will they continue to be one. More significantly, except on the issue of communal politics that the BJP brazenly subscribes to, and which the Congress also sometimes succumbs to, is there a difference between the two parties? As far as the economic policies are concerned, CPI (M) has consistently held and it is not far off the mark, that there is hardly any difference between the two parties.

As political outfits, both parties don't exist in almost half of the country. Congress is just a shadow of itself in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the four major states that contributes more than one third of the Lok Sabha seats.

Similarly, BJP is virtually non-existent in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu and has rapidly lost ground in Uttar Pradesh. Even in Bihar, Orissa and Maharashtra it can stand only with the help of its allies' crutches. Yet one has to admit that these two parties have more national presence than any other political parties. But is it enough to call them the two alternatives?

Now coming to the basis of the "third" alternative, which are the parties that the Marxists can think of in their quest for partners who fits their apparently strict conditionalities. Remember one of their conditionalities? "Consistent anti-communal outlook". Now the party draft talks of working with parties like the Telugu Desam, Samajawadi Party and the Asom Gana Parishad, which have all sought to extend cooperation.

Firstly do any of these parties, even if one thinks of a so-called third grouping in future, or parties like the DMK, really have had a "consistent anti-communal outlook"? Three of these four parties have been in Government with the BJP, which the Marxists consider as the leading communal force in the country. Even other wannabe third fronters like the Janata Dal (S), INLD, National Conference, Biju Janata Dal, are parties, which will not pass the test of "consistent anti-communal outlook".

Even the Samajawadi Party, though has never actually coalesced with the BJP openly, it is an open secret how the BJP helped Mulayam Singh Yadav to run a completely illegal, unconstitutional and immoral government, with the tacit assistance of the BJP leadership, earlier this decade.

Moreover, most of these parties have consistently shown whenever they have been in power, that they follow the same neo-liberal economic policies, which Karat and his ilk have consistently and honourably opposed. So are these the parties the Marxists can rely upon? All of them have displayed remarkable ideological flexibility, in other words, opportunism, whenever they have faced the possibility of grabbing power. The only two regional parties, which have so far displayed "consistent anti-communal outlook" has been Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal and Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party. And these two parties don't seem to be enthused with the Marxists penchant for this third alternative. So where is the electoral arithmetic or even a reliable common platform?

And now with the growing threat of the BSP further damaging the two major parties, the Congress and BJP in various States, the space for the third front will become increasingly suspect. So instead of living in this world of romantic illusion, as Jaipal Reddy, once an impassioned spokesman of the third front describes, is it not better that the Marxists understand the reality and adapt and strengthen the existing arrangement?All that this talk of a third alternative evokes is some hope for the sidelined parties like the SP and TDP and damage to the secular forces. We can do without this illusion.

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