Left just can’t blame comrades in China

The Comrades’ fascination for China was on full display on Tuesday when CPM politburo member and MP Sitaram Yechury refused to join the rest of the political class in condemning the Chinese ambassadors’ statement that Arunachal Pradesh ‘belonged’ to China.

“These are historical issues. These are disputes. That’s why these issues are being discussed,” Mr Yechury told reporters. He even suggested a resolution to the dispute: Don’t transfer populated areas on either side. In other words, Mr Yechury does not think that the Indian government is correct when it says that whole of Arunachal Pradesh belongs to India.

But this isn’t surprising, considering that the late Mr Namboodiripad had refused to condemn the 1962 Chinese aggression. He had taken a pro-Beijing stand, stating that it was a conflict between a socialist (China) and a capitalist (Indian) state. “Dogmatic assessment of the class character of the Nehru Government as well as the role a socialist country should play in relation to a non-aligned country made the Chinese Communist Party resort to force rather than peaceful negotiation as the means of settling the border problem,” the former CPM general secretary had said.

Quite expectedly, the original pro-Soviet faction within the Left, the present CPI, came out to back the position of the government. During the Chinese aggression these leaders had sided with India. “The Chinese ambassador can make any claim. But Arunachal Pradesh belongs to us,” said CPI general secretary A B Bardhan.

The Left parties, particularly the CPM, has been using its leverage with the current dispensation at the Centre to push Chinese interests. The party has been carrying out a sustained campaign for protecting the interests of the Chinese companies investing in India. The traditional anti-FDI camp has been quite enthusiastic about Chinese investments here.