MEDIA ZIGZAG WITH A LETTER

Media in Kerala recently made a new controversy over the celebrated Marxist economist Dr. Prabhat Patnaik's e-mail regarding a comment 'CPI (M) as a killer party'. Actually Dr. prabhat Patnaik didn't mention the party as a 'killer party'. At the sametime he criticised CPI(M)'s current position as "I see Communism in India today as being threatened in two ways: either being hegemonised by bourgeois liberalism, or as falling prey to a feudal-Stalinism."No media persons took a position to read the letter and reveal the reality. Instead they published what the "party enemies" handed over as a release. The objectivity and believability is once again challenged and questioned through the action. Dr. Prabhat made his comment to a letter mailed by K.T. Rammohan. Part of the misleading letter is given below.

KT Rammohan’s email:

…Prabhat, as I know, is one of the finest human beings in Indian academia, a brilliant economist, and well-worth a speaker in the proposed Ravi-meet. No qualms, we all agreed. But then there was history. I am sure that Prabhat is not a person who would justify the present killing. And now to have Prabhat (and that too to a place not far from Onchiyam), so closely identified as an intellectual of the killer-party, a government official during its earlier regime in power, would imply legitimising the murderous-party.

May be, it tvm were the venue, even now, I would not have expressed similar reservations in having prabhat. At Kozhikode, this would be the 52nd stab.

Please rethink! Prabhat could still be invited but if the theme could be changed to something like corporatism and social fascism in Malabar. 

…please feel free to forward this mail to all, including Prabhat.

Best regards,

Ram.

The highly subjective letter is not even provoked the left economist. He responded Mr. Rammmohan's latter gently. Dr. Prabhat reminded Mr.Ram about his background and deep routed connection with the CPI(M) also. At the sametime he put-forwarded his intellectual criticism also. Our media people didn't mind it. They also took part of the anti-communist campaign publicly.The so called impartial newspapers and television channels played the game cleanly. They displayed their 'exclusive' scoops and stories with maximum importance. Here is the letter by Prabhat.

Prabhat Patnaik’s Response to Rammohan's mail:

Dear Ram,
I appreciate the point made by you in your mail, and wish to say the following in that connection.
I have been with the Party for 37 years, having joined it at the start of the Emergency. My father had been a freedom-fighter and an early Communist (he was a founder of the Communist Party in Orissa in 1936). Having seen in my childhood the enormous sacrifices the Communists made, and the dedication to the cause of the working people that they had, it had always been my ambition to join the Party which was finally realized in 1975. For this very reason however the developments in Kerala over the last several days have been a source of great pain and anguish for me. The problems they pose for me are not just moral but also existential.
I see Communism in India today as being threatened in two ways: either being hegemonised by bourgeois liberalism, or as falling prey to a feudal-Stalinism. What is common to both these trends is an implicit lack of conviction about socialism, an implicit subscription to the neo-liberal “development” agenda, and an implicit denial of scope for people’s empowerment. Succumbing to either or both these threats would be disastrous and totally against the interests of the people. If socialism is to be brought back on the agenda, then an alternative de-Stalinized Marxism has to be practiced. I was looking forward to the Chintha Ravi Memorial seminar as an occasion to discuss these issues, and hence to critique the feudal-Stalinist trend that one encounters in Kerala, and also elsewhere. I saw the seminar as such an occasion because I knew that it would be attended by intellectuals seriously interested in Marxism. I do not often get an opportunity to interact with such a group.
One final point. The official position occupied by me in Kerala under the last government was not out of any Party mandate but at the personal request of Com. V.S. Achuthanandan. Most of my friends, including in the Party, advised me against it, but I took it up nonetheless, and have never regretted that decision.
With regards,

Prabhat Patnaik