was fortunate that in his twilight months, the CPI(M)’s grand old man Harkishan Singh Surjeet was too ill to see his carefully-crafted Congress-Left alliance implode.
NEW DELHI: It was fortunate that in his twilight months, the CPI(M)’s grand old man Harkishan Singh Surjeet was too ill to see his carefully-crafted Congress-Left alliance implode.
As he slipped in and out of coma during multiple visits to hospital over the past one year, he had no idea that his legacy was also on its deathbed, doomed to disappear into history books before the man himself.
But Surjeet’s ideology-driven successor Prakash Karat may find that it’s not so easy to erase his imprint on the politics of the Left. Ever the pragmatist, Surjeet was one of those rare Marxists who skillfully negotiated the fluid nature of an increasingly fragmented polity to make the Left a relevant national player. From masterminding the creation of the first Third Front government in 1996 to cobbling together the Congress-led UPA-Left formation that stunned the world by coming to power in 2004, Surjeet had been in the thick of things from the day he was appointed general secretary of the CPI(M) in 1992.
Not many know of Surjeet’s long, secret meetings with Sonia Gandhi through those difficult six years of NDA rule when he went about with single-minded determination to create a front to defeat the BJP. It was Surjeet who persuaded the Congress to drop its antagonism to the DMK and enter into a winning alliance. Again, it was Surjeet who pushed his own party to temper its traditional anti-Congress position and offer outside support to the UPA government.
The most public acknowledgement of his contribution came from prime minister Manmohan Singh in his opening speech in parliament on the day his government’s numbers were put to test after Karat steamrollered his Left colleagues into destroying Surjeet’s creation. But Gandhi too never forgot what Surjeet had done for the Congress and privately kept tabs on his failing health, offering all support and even visiting him in hospital.
His critics muttered darkly about his cunning machinations, his Machiavellian mind and his lack of scruples. But even those who thought he was steering the Left away from Marxist credo had high regard for his tremendous people skills and his go-getting abilities.
As he dribbled his way through political circles, weaving in and out of alliances and fronts, Surjeet won a large band of admirers and friends across the spectrum, from Lalu Prasad to Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh, from Karunanidhi to Chandrababu Naidu, from Prakash Singh Badal to VP Singh.
His biggest failure was his inability to persuade his party to let Jyoti Basu head the United Front government in 1996. The man who was so successful with leaders of different political hues could not swing his own comrades. Ironically, the biggest opponent of Surjeet’s proposal was none other than Prakash Karat who insisted that ideology should prevail over realpolitik. Basu later rued the decision as a “historic blunder’’.
The surprising thing is there was no hint of the pragmatic streak that dominated Surjeet’s later politics in his turbulent early career. He burst on the scene as an idealistic and passionate follower of Bhagat Singh and then made a name for himself as a dedicated Communist and revolutionary peasant leader, going to jail several times.
He spent a total of 10 years in prison and eight underground. He joined the Communist Party in 1934 and was general secretary from 1992 to 2005, when Karat took over.
Surjeet’s dream of an enduring Congress-Left alliance to fight the BJP may have crashed but his endeavours to release Left politics from the straitjacket of textbook Marxism still have resonance. These are turbulent times with ever changing alignments and emerging new forces. If the Left wants to remain relevant, the new guard may need to display the flexibility and realism that were the hallmark of Surjeet’s success.
a_jerath@dnaindia.net
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