CPI-M draft ideological document rejects 'identity politics'

KOZHIKODE: The " identity politics" theory, now being discussed widely by Leftist intelligentsia in India, where caste, religion, ethnicity and gender play dominant role in shaping politics, has few takers in the CPI-M leadership, going by the draft ideological document to be presented today at the on-going 20th party congress here.

Intense discussions are expected at the congress on the issue as Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury presents the draft of the new document, seeking to find an "Indian path" to socialism in the context of anti-imperialist struggles across the world.

The ideological line is being revised for the first time after the 1992 Chennai party congress, held in the backdrop of disintegration of Soviet Union and the collapse of Communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

The party exhorts people to meet the challenges of neo-liberal reforms, drawing correct lessons from experiences of other countries who are working out their methods to fight globalisation.

Observers say that there is a strong section in the party that believes that the communists cannot expand its mass base in India without taking into account the influence of caste and religion on a broad spectrum of people, determining their political choice, a view shared by many Leftist intellectuals.

Dismissing the theory, the CPI-M draft says when political mobilisation is based on identities of caste, religion and ethnicity, it negates the concept of a working class, which is considered to be only one fragment of identity. "In general, it depoliticises the people."