50 Years of Relentless Struggle Sitaram Yechury WITH this issue, People’s Democracy, the central organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), turns 50 years old! Since June 27, 1965, every week dated Sunday, People’s Democracy (PD) has come out regularly. Except when an issue was skipped (like on occasions when Party Congresses are held), the PD continued to reach its readers regularly during these 2,600 weeks. Many of these fifty years were not the easiest of times. PD had to overcome many a challenge that sought to prevent its regular publication. At the same time, it had to meet the contemporary challenges posed by the reactionary forces. The bitter ideological struggles against revisionism or the line of class collaboration within the Indian Communist movement that led to the formation of the CPI(M) and the bitter struggles against the Left adventurist deviation that began with the naxalites separating from the CPI(M) often threatened, in the initial years, the continuous publication of the PD. It is a matter of immense satisfaction that the PD overcame these obstacles while simultaneously meeting the political-ideological challenges of the Indian ruling classes and the gigantic State apparatus that they commanded, during this half a century. The PD had to discharge an important ideological responsibility in meeting the challenges arising from the divisions of the international Communist movement. Two and a half decades ago, the collapse of socialism in the Soviet Union with the disintegration of the mighty USSR saw a renewed ideological attack unleashed by a much strengthened imperialism on a global scale. Some Communist parties across the world collapsed. Many wavered resulting in the dilution of their commitment to Marxism-Leninism. The mighty Italian party dissolved itself abandoning the Red Flag. During this period, PD steadfastly propagated the CPI(M)’s ideological positions that defended and sought to strengthen the revolutionary content of Marxism-Leninism under Indian conditions. The PD, thus, contributed to the task of applying the creative science of Marxism-Leninism – the “concrete analysis of concrete conditions” in India. The PD has been and continues to remain today, the chronicler and the gazetteer of the CPI(M) as well. The CPI(M)’s role in sharpening the class struggles towards the completion of the democratic stage of the revolution in India and the consequent influence on the developments in Indian politics has been achieved on the basis of immense sacrifices. Thousands of our comrades had to lay down their lives in these battles against class enemies, both international and domestic, and battles against class deviation of both the right and Left variety. Even today, CPI(M) comrades continue to fight the forces of internal reaction laying down their lives and suffering the agony of dislocation. This is currently happening in West Bengal. Braving the turbulent years during the CPI(M)’s formation and the battle against class deviations; successfully overcoming the challenges and attacks during the period of the semi-fascist terror in West Bengal; the period of internal emergency during the 1970s; the rapid shifts in Indian politics during the decades of coalition governments and in the relentless struggle against the communal forces that seek to transform the secular democratic Indian Republic into the RSS project of a rabidly intolerant fascistic `Hindu Rashtra’ and in advancing the class struggles; the PD played an important role in meeting all these challenges. During the Emergency, the PD was the victim of stringent censorship. The empty spaces in PD’s columns during those 18 months conveyed much more to bolster resistance of the CPI(M) rank and file who were heroically fighting the Emergency and mobilizing Indian people in the battle for restoring democracy. As a revolutionary once famously said after the massacre of communards following the fall of the Paris Commune, these censored empty spaces in PD conveyed that the `eloquence of silence is at times more powerful than the tyranny of words’. The PD, thus, had the unique privilege of representing a class point of view that remained and continues to remain today unrepresented by any other media – print, electronic or cyber – the point of view of the Indian working class, poor peasantry and all other exploited sections of our people. In other words, the point of view of the Indian revolutionary forces. Starting with modest financial means and skeletal staff in Calcutta, the PD continues to discharge its responsibilities today under the constrains of our times. The onslaught of the neo-liberal economic policies and its attendant ideological attacks influencing the social consciousness of our people, particularly youth; the merciless distortion of history and the ideological attacks mounted by the communal forces, which get strengthened by their control over Central government today; with the Indian ruling classes increasingly playing the role of a subordinate ally of imperialism led by the USA constitute the important elements in the immediate backdrop of the current challenges faced by the CPI(M) and the PD. The PD will continue to provide the voice to the Communists and other progressive sections of the Indian people in their campaigns in meeting such challenges. During these fifty years, many special issues of the PD continue to be safely preserved and re-read by many comrades. During the last two decades, the special issues on the 50th anniversary of India’s independence; on important anniversaries of October Revolution; on important campaigns and people’s struggles unleashed by the CPI(M); and special issues warning the people against the repetition of earlier anti-people and anti-democratic expressions like the Emergency or the demolition of the Babri Masjid are noteworthy efforts that saw the contribution of many an eminent Left scholar and others like the late Professor Hiren Mukherjee, V P Singh etc. Particular mention must be made of the year-long regular columns published by the PD during the Golden Jubilee of India’s independence – Diary of People’s Struggles (highlighting struggles that contributed to India’s freedom which are deliberately sought to be erased from our history teaching); accounts of Communist freedom fighters that nailed the lies spread by our ruling classes and communal forces in seeking to portray the Communists as `betrayers of the freedom struggle’ and recollecting the glorious united struggles of our peoples against the British colonial rule in the First War of independence in 1857. These columns have found their place in the shelves of important libraries in the country as books brought out by PD Publications. The continuous discharging of these responsibilities by the PD would have been impossible but for the stewardship provided by its editorial teams right from the beginning. This would not have been possible also but for the many unsung and unnamed contributors who helped the editorial team and the tedious nitty-gritty involving its publication. Starting from its first Editor Comrade Jyoti Basu, the PD was steered by Comrades EMS Namboodiripad, B T Ranadive, M Basavapunniah, Sunil Maitra and others. Every week the issue would go to press. In the early days, before the arrival of modern technology, the matter would go to the letter press for being composed; proofs returned for correction to be eventually printed in time. This was the product as much of Communist dedication as it was of professionalism. Comrade Sengupta, our first Press Manager, when the Party Centre shifted to Delhi from Calcutta who, despite his delightful angularities, ensured the regular rolling out of the PD from the printing machine on time every week under those exacting circumstances. Comrade Ramdas, Central Committee member, was the backbone of the PD both in Calcutta and overseeing its shift to Delhi following the defeat of Emergency in the country. Comrade Rajan joined him when PD shifted to Delhi. Soon after, Loklahar started its regular publication with Comrade Surjeet as its Editor. This marked the fulfillment of the Salkia Plenum directive to start the Party’s Hindi paper. Comrade Kitty Menon joined the editorial team after her retirement as a Delhi University professor contributing to ensure the uninterrupted publication of PD. The practice of a collective editorial team overseeing the paper’s content and publication has ensured that for half a century, the PD continues to be published without any break. Uninterrupted publication, of course, is no excuse for not continuously improving the content of the PD. Many efforts were made during these fifty years. Many more need to be done. The editorial team needs to be urgently strengthened. The range of issues covered need to be enlarged to inform as well as provide the voice to the Party activists in meeting the current challenges keeping pace with the rapid strides in the technology of disseminating information, if not knowledge. PD’s founding Editor Jyoti Basu wrote in his first signed Editorial, “we take legitimate pride in being able to publish People’s Democracy as the central organ of our Party.” He went on to say in the Editorial titled `Our Mission’ that “We have an important mission to fulfill …Our weekly will mirror the trials, tribulations and struggles of the masses of our people. It will reflect their true interests in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres…..Our weekly will place facts and truths before the people about ourselves and our policies as against the slanders and lies which have become the stock in trade of (ruling classes) and their servile Press.” These objective continue to remain as relevant today as they were half a century ago. Indeed, they emerge as being more relevant today. The revolutionizing of information and communication technologies has strengthened the corporate hold over the media and quickened the pace “manufacturing consent” and diverting the people’s attention away from their basic issues of day-to-day existence and livelihood. Restoring the centrality of people’s agenda and struggles is an important task the PD has to shoulder, today. New challenges have emerged as the CPI(M) noted at its 21st Congress. A new trimoorti – economic policies that impose greater burdens on our people; sharpening communal polarization that threatens the unity and integrity of our country and growing authoritarian tendencies – is being constructed by the present BJP government led by PM Modi. The PD has a much more enlarged responsibility in discharging the tasks as decided by the CPI(M)’s 21st Congress in meeting the current situation. It has the task of motivating the CPI(M) rank and file and the Indian people to launch mightier struggles. The PD has discharged, to the best of its capabilities, the Leninist dictum of the Party newspaper being the “collective propagandist, collective organizer, and the collective agitator” of the Communist Party. The PD’s future responsibilities, in meeting the current challenges are, thus, defined. Memories of Two and a Half Years As a Proud Member of the PD team Brinda Karat PEOPLE’S Democracy is celebrating its 50th anniversary. Call it a coincidence, but it was on a day when comrades working in People’s Democracy were celebrating its seventh anniversary that I joined the team in 1972. Coffee and biscuits were served and there was merriment all around. That was my first introduction to the full PD team as we used to call ourselves. But the atmosphere turned somber and sad when we got the information that a young leader in Burdwan, Comrade Mahadev Banerjee had been brutally murdered at Katwa station. The celebrations ended and we observed silence for our martyred comrade before dispersing. That was a time of the semi-fascist terror in Bengal and comrades were trained to work in the most difficult of circumstances. No one had the luxury to complain that this or that facility was absent. The PD office was in quite a cramped place. Senior comrades related how they used to work from a larger space in the Lake Place office but then had to shift here. PD had been allotted two rooms. One room was shared by all the members of the editorial team and the second room was shared by the managerial team of which Comrade Leila Sundarayya was a leading member. For the first few months, I used to come to the PD office twice or thrice a week as I was continuing my work in the students front as a member of the Calcutta university branch. I had been writing for PD off and on since 1970 when I joined the Party. My first proper report was on the camps that were set up for the refugees of the Bangladesh war in 1971. But I joined as a wholetimer in the PD branch towards the end of 1972 or early 1973. I worked there till the declaration of Emergency when I was transferred by the Party centre to work in Delhi. So I had two and a half years of working in the PD team. The editor at the time was Comrade M Basavapunniah. I was told that when the office was in Lake Place where he had his residence, he used to attend the weekly meetings. However when the office shifted to Beniapukur, it was Comrade P Sundarayya who used to attend most of the meetings whenever he was in Kolkata. It was a most educative experience working in PD. But more of that later. Let me first introduce the team which was a wonderful mix of comrades. It was led by the brilliant Comrade Ramdas. A Central Committee member, he was the anchor and the lifeline for the paper. I never once saw him flustered, never once heard a harsh word from him to any of the members, never once heard him impatient when one or the other of us used to badger him with questions about a particular issue with which we may have disagreed. He was usually to be found hunched over a book or his battered typewriter. He used to write the main political article for the paper and sometimes, if asked by the editor, would write the editorial too. His desk was in the corner of the room always piled up with papers. One desk away from him used to sit the formidable economist, a stickler for time whose stern exterior hid a most generous and kind nature. This was Comrade Satyabrata Sen. He wrote the Economic Notes page. Later he was to become one of the pioneers in the conceptualisation of the panchayat system in Bengal. You could set your clock by the arrival and departure of Satya da as we used to call him. He would arrive in the office every day, six days a week between 11.15 and 11.30 and used to leave by 5.30. As soon as he had settled down at his desk he would take out a sheaf of papers and start making notes. He did not like to be disturbed but sometimes would relent and answer questions from an inquisitive newcomer like me. He used to take the most sought after classes on Marxist political economy. His favourite classes he used to say were those he used to take for workers. He took classes for the PD team too from time to time. Comrade Amar Mukherjee was the third indispensable member. He was literally the jack of all work. He used to sometimes write the international notes or collect data for the Do You Know Column or anything asked for by Comrade Ramdas. He was an encyclopedia of information. He was also in charge of the proof reading. From Monday to Wednesday when the paper was put to bed, Amar da could be seen making several trips a day from Beniapukur to Alimuddin Street a good twenty minute walk. Whether it was in the hot sun or in the pouring rain, Amar da would unfurl his old black umbrella over his head, with his jhola full of the proofs for PD and off he would go, never complaining. I would sometimes accompany him on these walks, sharing the shade of his umbrella and used to get a short lecture on a host of topics in the forty minutes there and back. The others in the team were Comrades Syamapada Pal and Provash Sinha. Shama da was a great favourite because he was always in a good mood, jovial and full of stories. He was a professor but used to come almost every day to the PD office either after work or when he was doing a late shift, during the day. Shama da and I used to do most of the rewriting work from the reports we used to get from the states and from mass organisations. He also used to write on matters connected with education. Provash Sinha was also a professor, much more senior in age than Syama da. He used to work from home but would come at least twice a week to the office. Sometime in late 1974, Comrade Shankar Gupta, who later became a minister in the Left Front government, joined the team. He was not a full time member as he had other responsibilities in the Party. But he made striking contributions to the political discussions in the team. I was the youngest member, 25 years old then and also the most junior. But was helped to develop politically and organisationally by all members of the branch. I was writing under the pseudonym of Sonali Verma on various issues as was decided at our weekly meetings. The highlight of the week was the weekly meeting. It was compulsory for all members to attend. It was a very serious affair. Each comrade was expected to prepare for the meeting having read up about the political developments and the topics to be suggested. We used to have a page called Notes which were three or four short notes on topical issues. We had to prepare for that. Usually Comrade Ramdas used to preside over the meeting and give a short update on the week’s developments. Then each comrade used to give their suggestions. Comrade Satya da would give a summary of the topic he intended to take up that week which was a class of its own even if only for ten minutes! Comrade Ramdas used to coordinate with the PB and suggest what should be the editorial. He also used to brief us about political developments and the Party’s position. Comrade PS used to attend at least one editorial meeting every six weeks or so. He used to come to the meetings with a carefully marked copy or two of PD of the intervening period. He would go through every article where he had a point to make and explain why he thought it was wrong or not sharply written enough and so on. He was extremely clear that nothing should go into the Party’s official paper which was not reflective of the Party line. He also always stressed on the importance of facts without embellishments. I remember one time there was a front page report on a rally in Bihar. The headline said 50,000 attend rally in Bihar. PS asked how we could allow such a printing error to go by. The rest of us were perplexed. What was the printing error? Then the irrepressible Amar da spoke up. “No comrade” he said, “I regret this is not a printing error, it is an error of judgment, I added the extra zero to 5000 as I felt that it would enthuse the comrades!” We tried to suppress our smiles but Syama da started laughing and we all followed suit including a smile from PS! But he did admonish us and said this was nothing but fooling ourselves and our readers. On at least three occasions that I remember and that Syama da has endorsed, we had a surprise visitor at our weekly meeting. It was Comrade Jyoti Basu. Comrade Basu had been the first editor of PD. He used to sit down on one of the old cane chairs we used to keep for visitors and would comment on an article or point out some dreadful proofing errors and ask us how we were doing. It was so inspiring to see how these legendary leaders would interact with such simplicity with all the members of our branch. Our neighbours upstairs were Comrade Harekrishna Konar and his family. Sometimes they would send down mangoes for the PD staff. Comrade Konar himself would sometimes visit us and we had the opportunity to hear first hand his experiences of struggle. He and Satya da would exchange notes about various aspects of peasant struggles and we would all put aside our pens and listen enthralled. Comrades working in PD over the years would all have their own experiences. For me the two and a half years working in that small office in Beniapukur taught me so much including about the importance our leaders had given to developing the paper as the voice of the Party, taught me about discipline, about team work and the importance of deadlines!