Response to Kavita Krishnan

The well-known left activist in Delhi circles, Kavita Krishnan, who is a senior leader of CPI-ML (Lib), has strongly objected to my post in Facebook reproduced below. See the earlier blog for all my recent posts on Kashmir, regularly updated.

As I have observed in the said post, and have been saying for years, the entire parliamentary left has not only become electorally irrelevant as the recent elections conclusively proved, it has lost credibility with the masses in its ability to raise people’s causes. In fact, for more turbulent cases such as Dandakaranya, Kashmir, North-East, Niyamgari, Narmada, and a host of other charged struggles, the role of the left verges on being reactionary. In the horrendous Sterlite murders in Tamilnadu recently, in which dozens of unarmed protesting citizens were mowed down by the police, the left failed to generate any viable national and international uproar. So there is no need to respond to the left as such.

However, I have some admiration for Kavita Krishnan as an individual activist herself. Although most of her visible activist work is restricted to the elite urban areas of New Delhi, she, in association with some enthusiastic students mostly from JNU and elsewhere, has developed interesting skills in mobilising mainstream television and social media attention to raise some genuinely democratic causes. The same cannot be said of her ‘party’ CPI-ML (Lib) which has been stuck in a few villages in Bihar for about 4 decades, and doesn’t have the ability to win even a single parliamentary seat even with full support from other secular parties. Elsewhere in the country, all they do is to lose the deposit. Even in metropolitan Delhi where they have their ‘headquarters’, I do not think ML(L) has the ability to win a single municipality seat despite all the colourful social media show put up by the student’s and women’s wings of the party; the main parliamentary left has even less reach with the masses. However, still, Lib is more active than the other farcical ‘naxalite’ groups whose only 'revolutionary' work, with a few exceptions such as Red Star, is to gossip over hot tea and churn their history.

I am getting into this longish introduction to set up the proper perspective for evaluating Krishnan’s loud claims of successful protest in her response to my post. Yet, as noted, Krishnan deserves a longish response because of her singular efforts in making some difference to an otherwise totally moribund left. I will mention in my own response what difference Kavita has made on the Kashmir issue.

My Post of 20/08/2019

Kashmir betrayed.

Over a fortnight has passed since the direct military clampdown on Kashmir, virtually imprisoning nearly 10 million people, double the population of Palestine. Just a few parties--divided Congress, DMK, non-existent CPM, non-existent CPI, reluctant TMC etc.--opposed the move in the parliament.

After the clampdown, only CPIML(LIB)/AISA has held a very small token rally in Delhi. Otherwise, there is deafening silence from the rest of the so-called secular democratic forces: Congress, CPI, CPM etc. except for timid, non-committal TV bytes.

After such a massive attack on the people, Gandhi's land would have expected waves and waves of massive rallies in solidarity. They could march repeatedly for the benign arrest of 3 JNU students. They cannot march when a million people are caged and starving.

The people of Kashmir are watching and thinking, watching and thinking, from behind the bars.

Krishnan’s Response

(1)  Actually you're wrong. The Left parties together held a protest action within two hours of the announcement of the abrogation of 370. And then soon after, Left parties together, as well as NAPM and other groups, held a well-attended rally in Delhi - neither small nor token. The Left parties also held protests in most major cities and many many small towns and rural areas. Representatives of Left parties CPIM and CPIML were also a key part of the first team to visit Kashmir in solidarity. Your vision is extremely selective.

(2)  Help to build the Left you deserve and demand. Not pull down and troll the Left we have.

Response to Krishnan

First, I’ll be the first person to be elated if I am proved wrong about the total absence of mass protests. If indeed there has been significant mass protests in solidarity with the Kashmiri people in ‘mainland’ India, I would be very eager to advertise it repeatedly and, physical opportunity permitting, join them. The entire stress obviously is on significant. I need not deny that, say, a few dozen people of sundry political outfit might have gathered somewhere with placards, shouted a few slogans for 10 minutes, and dispersed. That happens all the time in Jantar Mantar, Vivekanand statue in DU, open spaces in JNU etc. If, as a noted activist, you consider them significant, it only proves my point about the abject state of the left. The only token but slightly more visible rally was the one I mentioned in my post, which I duly covered with video link in earlier posts. Hardly 50 student types gathered, shouted some slogans, people like you gave some bytes, that’s all, Typically, the number of press people and police far exceed the number of protesters.

Second, so that we don’t end up debating about which is more significant, 25 people or 60, I suggested a minimal benchmark, namely, the rallies held in February 2016 to protest the arrest of 3 students. Now, it is plainly ridiculous to set as a benchmark the size of a predominantly elite student rally in Central Delhi for the size required for protesting the imprisonment of 10 million people. But under the frustrating circumstances, let us suppose the 2016 size to be the minimum. I have discussed the fraudulent character of the content and form of those 2016 rallies elsewhere, so won’t repeat it here. Still, the fact remains that thousands did march repeatedly within a short time. Supposing that to be a measure of significance, it is alarming that you cite sundry small token sectarian gatherings as counter-examples to my perspective.

Third, numbers aside, how do we measure significant protests? A rule of thumb, advocated by many, is that a meaningful protest raises the cost for the oppressors and, as a result, the mainstream media and the world are forced to take notice. That was achieved for, say, the Jyoti Singh case in which you played a salutary role. May the people of Kashmir expect something at least similar from people offering solidarity?

Fourth, just for records, let me state my own reactions since you complained about my role. Even with the abject failure of the left democratic forces, I made sure to announce and vigorously applaud even the smallest significant effort to challenge the state. Let me explain. The highest form of solidarity, of course, is to organize resistance in Kashmir itself. The next higher form is to organize resistance—raise the cost of the state—outside Kashmir by developing massive struggles such as the recent farmer’s rallies. Unfortunately, given the pathetic, diabolical and statist condition of the left with regard to the Kashmir issue, the first two options are ruled out. The last and the least costly form of the resistance is to expose the lies of the state. This is exactly what Jean, you, and two others did in your pretty brave trip to Kashmir. I saluted and covered this act for days, uploaded whatever was available, highlighted the exemplary role played by the team etc. Therefore, it is at least puzzling that I have been viewed as ‘trolling’ the left. The preceding observations prove the contrary.

Lastly, the accusation that a single ageing cantankerous ‘contrarian’ is capable of pulling down and trolling the glorious left composed of commanding leaders like Yechury, Raja, Karat, Bhattacharya and the like, can only be viewed as another confirmation of the basic point of my post. No wonder, the blinkered, hypocritical, statist, and almost non-existent left is unable to see that a sustained criticism is the only route for ‘developing the left’, as you demand. Even the Congress is doing precisely that, but the Stalinist commanders never learned the humility to resign.

In conclusion, therefore, I am once again deeply disappointed with your cliched words defending the left. Perhaps the only hope is that your words do not match some of your brave acts.