Sitaram Yechury

    It is now two years since Comrade Makineni Basuva¬punniah left us.  At every twist and turn of the complex developments that took place during this period all of us at the Party Centre acutely missed his penetrative presence and wished that he was there to continue to guide the Party and evolve its line as he had done for nearly  six decades.

    Comrade MB's six decades of Communist life, his sterling qualities and his significant contributions will be chronicled eventually as an integral part of the history of modern India.  The inadequacies of those of my generation are too obvious to attempt this task.  In fact MB was elected to the Polit Bureau even before I was born.  I can only recapture some of the lasting impressions of his personality and contributions that continue to remain relevant and a source of inspiration. 


    Through his signal contribution in the struggle against deviations in the Communist movement both within India and internationally, his contributions in forming the CPI(M) and evolving its subsequent tactical line and through the vicious polemical and organisational strug¬gles against these deviations Comrade MB  emerged as one of the tallest figures of the Indian communist movement. At every important shift in the Party's tactics MB played a key role.  Of his many contributions, what stands out sharply is the relentless efforts he made to maintain the ideological parity of the Party's line consistent with the revolutionary tenets of Marxism-Leninism.  During my association with him of over a decade, I  recollect many occasions when he would sit down to hear from me the questions that Party comrades raised during some of my visits to various states.  Ever vigilant in discerning any deviation or divergence from the accepted Party positions, Comrade MB would insist that these questions should be discussed and replied to in some form or the other in the Party organs.  Ques¬tions unanswered, according to him, is tantamount to leaving wrong trends uncorrected, thus disarming the Party. This constant `training', that MB imparted has to be implemented by every conscious party member to meet the challenges of the present times.


    Such constant vigilance and the ideological sharp¬ness and clarity is being all the more missed when we are currently discussing the updating of the Party Programme.  At the 14th Congress in Madras in January 1992, Comrade MB was elected to head the Central Commit¬tee's Commission to undertake this task.  His contribu¬tions for the evolution of the CPI(M) Programme are well known.  In fact, the first salvo, in trying to come to grips with the character of the Indian State and that of the Indian bourgeoisie, was fired by him alongwith Comrades PS, Hanumantha Rao, Prasada Rao and Surjeet in 1955.  He would constantly remind us that the key ques¬tion on which the divergences in the Indian communist movement arose were related to the assessment and esti¬mation of the character of the Indian bourgeoisie.  In our discussions today, we often have to fall back on MB's writings on these subjects.

    What, ofcourse, remains as an eternal "rule" learnt from MB is that of paying attention to the de¬tail.  This was a characteristic of his personality.  The last two/three years of his life was marked by great turbulence in the international communist movement and the pernicious anti-communist theories masquerading under the slogan of "renewal of socialism". There are miles of drafts that are still there with us here at the Party centre, marked by his red pen, corrections to make formulations more accurate and strictly scientific.  Only on example will suffice.  Many of us while talking of the fundamental contradictions of our present epoch refer to the contradiction between imperialism and socialism as the main or principal contradiction.  MB would be ever vigilant to point out that the scientific term would be `central' because all the four contradic-tions are fundamental to our epoch while the contradic¬tion between imperialism and socialism is central in the period of humanity's transition to socialism.  Such changes were not merely what he used to graciously call "verbal".  In fact they had little to do with either syntax or grammar.  For MB every word had a particular emphasis, a particular nuance.  In order to avoid any scope of misunderstanding or misinterpretation every word had to be weighed correctly.  It is this particular trait of his, that led him all through his life, to use his pen and write his drafts.  He never dictated any of his documents.

    Being the creative mind that he was, MB would constantly keep seeking solutions to complex problems.  I recollect one of our visits abroad. Incidentally, MB's last visit to China in 1991.  The talks with the Chinese leaders on the current international developments went on for three full days.  It was MB's habit to come over to my room in the evenings to go over the discussions, meeting all the points that were raised.  On one such occassion the conversation veered around to the question of nationalities. All of us recall the deep study MB had done of this complex question which eventually led to the amendment to the Party Programme in Madurai in 1972.  Of the many experiences of the Indian people and Commun¬ists concerning this issue that he related that evening, the one I wish to recollect is the comparison he made of our struggle in India with the successful Russian and Chinese revolutions.  Both these are multinational countries, but they had one common point. In both there was a predominant nationality - Russian and Han - which facilitated the task of building the revolutionary party that was capable of carrying out the revolution. Our task in India however is much more complex both with the large number of nationalities and the non preponderance of any one.  Further,  amongst the largest language speaking group in India the revolutionary traditions are the weakest.  The most important point he made however, related to the task of party building under these condi¬tions.  Democratic Centralism is one of the pillars of a revolutionary party organisation.  In a vast multina¬tional country like ours, the task of building a revolu¬tionary party based on Democratic Centralism is indeed very complex. While the rights of each nationality has to be protected and conditions created for the flourish¬ing of its language, culture, traditions etc, the task is to build a centralised revolutionary army capable of carrying out the social transformation.  In this complex situation it is necessary to guard against both the deviations of bureaucratism that rides rough shod over nationality sentiments and federalism that undermines the centralised revolutionary authority. Only future will tell us how successful we are in meeting this complex task. Unfortunately,  when MB is no longer available to guide us practically, we have to take recourse to many of his writings and personal experienc¬es.

    I can continue to recall many interactions that I continue  to cherish and learn from.  But if there is one thing that had a particular magnetic attraction in MB's personality it was his characteristic optimism.  Courage of conviction never faltered in his long decades of political life.  I can do no better than to quote his last lines that he panned on the 10th of April 1992.  "Marxism is immortal and Lenin's cause of Marxism and socialism is the only cause that civilised humanity can espouse".

    Homage to MB means rededication on our part to strengthen our resolve and redouble our efforts to fulfill the cause for which he lived and contributed all through his life.