SIX SOURCES OF COMMUNIST POWER

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SIX SOURCES OF COMMUNIST POWER – MYTH, IDEOLOGY, ORGANISATION, FINANCE, CULTURAL NETWORK, USE OF 3 INSTITUTIONS . . – Sitaram Goel in Nehru’s Fatal Friendship

. . . [Sita Ram Goelji’s seminal analysis has enduring significance, although some observations have become dated with the fall of Soviet Union. His analysis is presented here edited somewhat to suit the changed times. All additions & comments are parenthesised.] [IDEOLOGY & ORGANISATION]

Communism is an ideology as well as an organisation. While the ideology perverts and subverts men’s minds, the organisation infiltrates and disintegrates all institutionalised life within a given community.

In fact, there is a dynamic integration between the ideology and the organisation. The prevalence of communist ideology in any sector of social life facilitates the task of communist organizational infiltration ; and communist infiltration, overt or secret, always helps the spread of communist ideology.

This interdependence of communist ideology and organization should never be lost sight of in any correct estimation of communist power and the location of the sources of that power.

With this background, we can proceed to identify the sources of communist power in India.

… the greatest source of its ideological power is the … Myth.

. . .[Goelji identifies two myths: the Soviet myth and the Spectre of American Imperialism. Points worth considering are: a) there could be many more and b) the election of Biden with left support is bound to complicate their positions on America]

The … Myth … [is] sanctioned, in the final analysis, by something more than mere propaganda by the communists and their allies. The ultimate basis of … [its] acceptance is provided by Marxist thought-categories which are accepted as ‘scientific’ truth even in avowedly anti-communist circles.

…. There are very few people amidst our politically conscious intelligentsia who have been through these categories and realised that they do not interpret the real situation. Our universities are totally dominated by professors and lecturers who regard these categories of thought as incontrovertible and holy truth and who continue to poison generation after generation of our young men and women.

. . . [Goelji goes on to identify the political streams and thought processes that contribute to the strengthening of the Myth] [THREE PRONGED ORGANISATION]

Now I pass on to communist organisation … Today this organisation enjoys all constitutional and legal rights which democratic India can afford and has become highly respectable in the public eye …

The organisation is three-pronged :– open, camouflaged and secret.

The open organisation consists of what is commonly known as the ìCommunist Party of Indiaî which has a constitution, publishes party manifestos, maintains party organs, publishing houses, a network of party offices, members and paid whole- timers, participates in all sorts of elections and sends its representatives in our Parliament, the State Assemblies and all sorts of local bodies.

The camouflaged organisation consists of what are called ëfrontí organisations, such as the All-India Trade Union Congress, All-India Kisan Sabha, All-India Studentsí Federation, All-India Peace Council, the Progressive Writersí Association, the Indian Peopleís Theatre Association, the National Federation of Women, the Indian Association of Democratic Lawyers, the India-China Friendship Association, the Indo-Soviet Cultural Society, the Congress of Scientific Workers, etc. The fronts build specialised platforms in every walk of our social life, politicalise every non-political issue, create fellow-travellers, use non-political reputations for political purposes, infiltrate, control and influence the government, the press, the universities, political parties and every type of club and association, and organise exchange of delegations with communist countries and communist organisations abroad.

The secret organisation consists of what is popularly known as the ‘underground’ but which the communists call the ‘Tech’. No member of the ‘Tech’ can be recognised as a communist or a fellow-traveller. Their special job is to infiltrate the Armed Forces, the Police, the policy-making organs of the Government, to carry on espionage for the Soviet Government, to carry arms and ammunition and prepare for insurrection, civil war, or coup díetat, whichever method suits the Party in its final bid for power.

. . . [Goelji identifies Soviet finance that was significant in his time. Today money flows from China, Middle East, Northern Europe and America as well as finance from domestic industry and trade can be scrutinised.]

Ample finances enable the Communist Party of India to maintain : 1) … whole-timers … [including party functionaries, MPs & MLAs]; 2) scores of daily, weekly and monthly newspapers ; 3) … publishing houses and bookstalls; 4) hundreds of party offices… and 5) several hundred professional fellow-travellers clustered around the front organisations.

Enormous amount of money is spent in subsidizing papers …, arranging conferences, festivals, dramas and frequent delegations and missions abroad … [to] allure intellectuals, writers, poets, artists, sports men, publicists, journalists, etc. with the help of money in cases where the ideological pull fails or proves inadequate.

. . . [The networking thus created has dual use: to spread influence on the one hand and to identify, denigrate and/or divide opponents on the other]

And this tremendous organisational power is used by the communists not only for spreading their ideology, politics and organisational network, but also for denying opportunities to, and character assassination of, all those who are opposed to communism.

While persons, groups and parties amenable to communist ideological influence are attracted into the communist network, persons, groups and parties opposed to communism are set against each other by sheer organisational manoeuvres and whispering campaigns. Today this organisational domination by the communists has assumed serious proportions in India.

. . . [Apart from its own organisations, three institutions in India are extensively used by Communism to further its purposes according to Goelji]

First of all, our universities are deeply infiltrated by communist professors and student whole-timers. I know many university teachers who openly ‘teach’ communism in their classes. Anyone who tries to oppose them or to carry on some amount of anti-communist work is hounded out and blackened in no time. Thus the nation gets a large number of communised young men and women to run her administration, economy and education, in times to come.

Secondly, the press has, to a very large extent, passed into the hands of the Communist Party. One has only to look a little more closely into the headlines, news items, feature articles and editorials … an iron-curtain is being sprung up round this country, all unknown to people who run the government or the political parties.

Thirdly, the ruling Congress Party has been considerably penetrated. Though the Congress Party still swears by Gandhism, its slogans have already become communist slogans for all practical purposes. Many communists and fellow-travellers, such as the Marxist Forward Bloc, are entering Congress … If the present trend continues, it is absolutely sure that the communists will, in near future, make a bid to capture the Congress organisation and, through it, the country.

-Edited by Rahul Shastri