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

Sujeet Bhatt sujeet.bhatt at gmail.com
Sun May 24 23:31:31 PDT 2009


Ravi,

The disappearance of the Left as an option is precisely what I am worried about - to that extent we are in agreement. I of course have no ready answers to what a "re-imagined" Left might be. What I do know is that I see very little effort in the direction of a ruthless self-examination. Self-deception combined with intellectual laziness is the poisonous cocktail that will kill the Left more effectively than the cynicism of voters or the machinations of the Right.

Regards,

Sujeet

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 8:04 PM, ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:


> 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
>
>
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