Left's dilemma over caste-based parties

By M.R. Venkatesh

CHENNAI, JAN. 8. The main Left parties in Tamil Nadu - CPI and CPI(M) - which are determined to avert a ``third front'' by consolidating the secular forces for the coming Assembly elections, have now begun to look for a coherent framework to let them fight the polls along with caste-based outfits, should the need arise.

While parties representing Dalits' interests are not seen as casteist but identified with the ``under-class,'' the Left parties, sources say, face a dilemma when it came to parties

such as the Vanniyar-dominated PMK, the New Justice Party (NJP) with a predominantly Mudaliyar base led by Mr. A.C. Shanmugam, and another outfit, Makkal Tamizh Desam (MTD), floated by the former Minister, Mr. S. Kannappan, with the Yadava community's backing.

The Left's worry has stemmed from the fact that some of these parties like the PMK and the NJP could do electoral business with the AIADMK-led secular front, even as the MTD has already sent signals of moving closer to the DMK-led front.

The issue itself, sources say, has gained some momentum with the general secretaries of the CPI(M) and CPI, Mr. Harkishan Singh Surjeet and Mr. A.B. Bardhan, respectively, holding separate meetings with the AIADMK leader, Ms. Jayalalitha, and the TMC president, Mr. G.K. Moopanar, in the last few days.

Expectations of the CPI taking the lead to form a view on caste- based parties, as the former held its two-day National Executive here, were belied, though Mr. Bardhan, after the meeting, said the ``elements'' of the secular front in Tamil Nadu could become clear in a month's time.

Mr. Bardhan even hinted at a meeting of all the leaders of the secular front parties in New Delhi either by January-end or early February to discuss alliance matters, while the State CPI(M) has said that it will finalise the party strategy by this month-end after the CPI(M)'s Central Committee in Bhubhaneshwar.

The crux of the issue, as Mr. Bardhan put it while in Chennai recently, was that the Communists basically saw caste- based formations as a ``negative development'' and would not ideologically subscribe to it.

But in the same breath, reflecting the underlying complexity, Mr. Bardhan pointed out that it was also true that there were ``many parties in the country which do have a caste base.'' He cited the example of the RJD in Bihar.

Adverting to the deeper sociological problem which all parties had to grapple with, Mr. Bardhan said, though ``none of the caste-based parties has approached us so far,'' the fact was that in Hindu society, ``people are born with a caste birth mark.''

``Caste'', when used as a descriptive term and ``Caste'' when seen as a ``value term'', made a lot of difference, Mr. Bardhan was inclined to agree while replying to a query on this issue.

Mr. Bardhan's assessment indicated that the problem was two-fold: at what point a caste-based outfit could be called a political party and at what level a registered political party got itself reduced to its purely ``casteist'' trappings.

If these larger issues implied that even the Left parties could not disregard ``caste'' as a social phenomenon, at the ground level it appears that both the CPI and the CPI(M) have let the TMC president, Mr. Moopanar, take the lead to sort out this issue.

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