20. The New Perspectives
THIS ALL INDIA CONVENTION of the Forum for Socialist Action has a special significance, because it comes at a time when the socio-economic compulsions of a changing society are being appreciated and accepted on a wider scale and there is a much sharper and more vocal reaction to the persisting inequities which hinder the processes of transformation. The Convention is also of some significance because it is the first to be held after the political turmoil that the country went through during the last one year. Out of it emerged a clearer understanding of the ideological loyalties and commitments of the people which contributed to the strengthening of the socialistic forces in the country.
The last year has been an agonising year in the life of the Congress Party. This great party which led the nation through a mass struggle for freedom had to split and this in its turn gave rise to a rethinking and self-introspection in all political parties. These are, therefore, unusual times in more senses than one. In retrospect the parting of ways from our erstwhile colleagues, however painful, has proved to be a blessing. The split when it occurred had overtones of personal loyalties which completely obscured and overshadowed the strong and fundamental under-currents of ideological differences and variations in the degree of commitment to the accepted programmes and policies of the party. Several people felt that the split was based on clash of personalities and the struggle for supremacy over the party. It was also argued by some that the split was unreal since the package of programmes offered at the Bombay Session of the Congress was far less radical than that offered earlier at the Ahmedabad Session of the other Congress faction. There were widespread comments that both factions of Congress had the 10-point programme as their starting point. But over the year it is amply clear in the light of alignment of forces on a number of crucial issues, that the split in the Congress was based on important differences on major issues in the life of the country. How does one otherwise explain the alignment of the faction that has gone out of the Congress with patently reactionary, status-quo minded and communal parties not only as part of mere tactics to oppose us for the sake of opposition, but as a political strategy for grand alliance. A further decisive and demonstrable ideological cleavage in the two groups of Congress was evident from the stand taken by Congress (0) on the question of abolition of privy purses and privileges. The split was, therefore, a surgical operation which was inevitable, sooner than later, if the Congress was not to become completely immobilised, a prisoner of its own internal contradictions.