CPI (Maoist) expels its former ‘Politburo Member’ Kobad Ghandy

 

 

 

COMMUNIST Party of India (Maoist), which is a banned organisation, has expelled its former ‘Politburo Member’ Kobad Ghandy over the ‘deviation of line’ and ‘anti-revolution’ stand in his book ‘Fractured Freedom -- A Prison Memoir’, which he wrote after his release from jail in October 2019. While appealing its cadres to ‘boycott’ Ghandy, the Maoist organisation has also hinted at releasing a ‘detailed reply’ to the book soon. CPI (Maoist) issued a press release on November 27, 2021 in this regard. It got circulated widely on social media. Signed by Abhay, Spokesperson of Central Committee of CPI (Maoist), the said press release mounts severe criticism of Ghandy. Kobad Ghandy, who along with his wife Anuradha (now deceased) spent around 20 years in Nagpur, was arrested in 2009 on charges of close links with Naxalites/Maoists. He was released in October 2019. After his release, he wrote the book ‘Fractured Freedom -- A Prison Memoir’ of which the first edition was published in March 2021. Since its release, the book has attracted lot of criticism from the Left parties.

 

Though Ghandy writes about ‘turn to revolutionary cause’ and ‘radical politics’ in his book, he has been denying that he was Politburo Member of CPI (Maoist) Central Committee. In contrast, however, the press release issued by CPI (Maoist) names Ghandy as the one who has been associated with ‘Naxalbari way’ for over 50 years and that he previously worked as Central Committee member of CPI (ML) (People’s War), Maharashtra Committee leader, and later as Politburo Member of CPI (Maoist) Central Committee till his arrest in 2009.

 

The press release accuses Ghandy of abandoning the ‘dialectical and historical materialism’, principles of Marxism, and for selecting the way of ‘happiness through spiritualism’. It also accuses him of ‘deviation’. CPI (Maoist) has levelled various other charges against Ghandy in the press release, ranging from ‘wrong definition of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism’, ‘bourgeois mysticism’, ‘dishonesty’, ‘eagerness to earn accolades from the ruling classes’, ‘anarchist trends’, ‘distortion of history’ of Communism, ‘betrayal of people’, ‘severe violation of party discipline’, ‘opportunistic politics’ etc. The said press release also flays Ghandy for being ‘Leftist in preaching, and Rightist in action’. It states that Ghandy has tried to ‘cover up the truth’ despite being ‘involved in preparing documents and participating in discussions in Maoist party for a long time’. Referring to the work of the ‘Left’ parties, Ghandy has written in his book that many of them ‘have been absorbed into the trappings of corruption and power-politics, propping up the existing status quo, and are only in name socialists/communists’. Further, he has written that in all the activities, relationships, and organisations, the three aspects of ‘happiness, freedom and good values need to be interwoven’. “After all, our goals should be reflected in embryonic form throughout the entire process of its achievements. Only then will the final outcome not get reversed and sustain after the seizure of power as well. Unfortunately, I don’t see such a process in India,” he adds in the book. While writing on happiness, he has even advised that ‘goalposts have to be changed from fighting inequality to happiness for all’. In the book published by Roli Books, Ghandy has also observed at one place, “In fact, new ideas in Marxist circles are often seen as dangerous, and the person is either labelled, targeted or isolated.”

 

While commenting on ‘determinism’, he has written, “Freedom is the very opposite of determinism... There is determinism amongst communists as well, like them saying, for example, that ‘revolution is inevitable’, though it has not come for centuries in India, while worldwide there have been so many major reversals. By repeating by rote that it is ‘inevitable’ we will never look for the causes for the setbacks.” Meanwhile, there has been some kind of skepticism in a section about CPI (Maoist) expelling a senior leader like Kobad Ghandy. Some viewed it as an attempt to ‘paint the picture of dissociation’. Soon after the news broke on Wednesday, Ghandy spoke to media at Mumbai in which he stuck to whatever he wrote in the book but also raised doubts whether the press release was ‘genuine’. Still, he expressed ‘shock’ over the press release.