[lbo-talk] India's Hindu Party Reflects on Election Drubbing

[ravi]

On May 19, 2009, at 3:51 AM, Sujeet Bhatt wrote:
>
> The trouble with the Indian Left is its total intellectual bankruptcy.
> The voter has finally seen through this. Unless they radically
> reinvent themselves, I see them fading away rapidly into oblivion.
> Which would be unfortunate because, if nothing else, their record on
> secularism has been impeccable. A vibrant Left would certainly help to
> keep the Congress government on its toes. One can only wish that the
> Yechuris and the Karats, whose ideologies were forged in the
> coffeehouse ambience of JNU in the 'seventies (and remain largely
> ossified in the discourse of that period), finally wake up from their
> dogmatic slumbers. The prognosis, in my view, is quite poor.
>

Some follow-up questions:

What would constitute a reinvention for the CPI etc? They are after  
all, by definition, wedded to a particular ideology. If their problem  
is intellectual bankruptcy (as opposed to strategic errors or just  
plain hypocrisy), then what is an alternative Left intellectual basis?  
A revival of the JP, or at least JP? While that suits me quite well,  
that seems even less likely.

What worries me is that the voter, in seeing through the flaws of the  
Left, might not be seeking a more vibrant Left, but might be, like the  
voter in the USA, accepting the cynical choice between two largely  
capitalist/neo-liberal parties. I fear that the demise of the JP and  
its off-shoots (not counting the BJP), the possibly self-inflicted  
exit of the CPI, the weakening of state parties, will all lead to a US- 
style reduction of options and democracy -- hence my drawing parallels  
between the Dems and the Congress.

	--ravi