Confrontation or creative tension?

On October 28, Left began a mass campaign in Delhi with the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal(S), as well as progressive intellectuals, to demand an independent foreign policy. The Delhi convention will be followed up in Lucknow and other cities.

Through this initiative, the Left has signalled two things. First, its debate with the UPA will no longer remain confined to economic issues, like disinvestment in BHEL, foreign investment, privatisation of electricity, water and insurance, or divestment from public enterprises. The issues have expanded to foreign policy and security.

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Secondly, the Left has drafted Centrist parties into the campaign. As CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat put it: "There are six parties on the dais today. Together we have 100 MPs. We demand foreign policy issues be raised in Parliament."

Apart from the addition to the Left's 60-odd MPs -- ts highest number in Parliament ever --this front lends political weight to its ideological-political agenda.

The Congress, the UPA's leading party, should know that with its 145 seats, it cannot ignore the Left-led grouping. Both political survival and wisdom demand that the UPA carry the supporting parties through consensus.

The Left-led criticism of the UPA's position on Iran traces this to its pro-US orientation reflected in the recent defence and nuclear cooperation agreements.

Despite the UPA's strained denial of this link, public sees India's moves as abject capitulation to US pressures, a retreat from Non-Alignment, betrayal of a friendly country, and erosion of policy sovereignty.

This perception is shared by a large chunk of the Indian Establishment and opinion-makers -- as the presence of many former Indian ambassadors, and commentators and scholars at the Delhi seminar shows. It would be patently imprudent for the UPA to dismiss or minimise the critics' arguments.

To become acceptable and sustainable, policies must be based on a broad consensus which cuts across different interest-groups and political affiliations. The UPA must not try to "capture" the policy agenda -- like the Bharatiya Janata Party did.

If the Centre-Left campaign mobilises public opinion, as seems likely, the Left will acquit itself well as a healthy pressure-group -- or as Finance Minister P. Chidambaram conceded, as "the conscience" of his government, which reminds it of its obligations towards the underprivileged.

The Left isn't yet strong enough to become an equal partner in a Centre-Left coalition or lay down its policy agenda. It can however legitimately act as a pressure-group, which tries to influence policies.

That's exactly what the Left did by negotiating the UPA's National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP) over several sittings and seven drafts. This was not a policy putsch, but democratic, consensual, deal-making.

The NCMP reflects the spirit of the popular mandate for the UPA and a forceful rejection of the BJP's divisive politics and its economic elitism and foreign policy.

One could argue that the NCMP doesn't strongly urge a review of the NDA's militarism and nuclear weapons policy. Nor does it overturn the pro-neoliberal central thrust of its economic approach. But that's a dispute over whether a better compromise was possible or not. The Left certainly didn't attempt a capture. It showed sobriety and respect for democratic norms.

However, the Right has unleashed a tirade against the Left precisely for this reason. Its ideologues indulge in Left-bashing like Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early Cold War years. They slander the Left and scholars connected with the UPA's National Advisory Council for their "autarkic, tax-and-spend" policies, their "Cold War mindset" and "knee-jerk" anti-Americanism.

These Right-wingers include weirdos who oppose a cess on tobacco or alcohol to fund social sector programmes, as well as semi-literate analysts who hate liberal-Left ideas because these defend the bedrock principles of the Constitution, including democracy, egalitarianism, equality of opportunity, and social justice.

They suppress the history of development, modernisation, and establishment and expansion of human rights and popular empowerment everywhere, including India. Their loyalties are to the market, to privilege, to dogma -- not to flesh-and-blood people, rationality, or justice.

Right-wing critics strongly oppose the Left's core-values such as popular sovereignty, equality, welfare and justice for all, especially the underprivileged. Indeed, they oppose the liberal values too, including modernism, rationalism, and freedom of faith and association.

They fail to understand that the Communist and Socialist movements are rooted in an intellectual tradition that is modernist, internationalist, and rationalist.

True, the Left's radicalism demarcates it from liberalism, but the two share a lot. They both derive from the Enlightenment. The Left's project seeks social emancipation and freedom from exploitation to build a compassionate, egalitarian, humane world.

Far-Right critics also fail to appreciate the Left's historic contribution to building liberal institutions and values, such as freedom from bondage, universal suffrage, representative democracy, dignity of labour, gender equality, and social security.

These were created by long and bitter struggles of the working people, of which the Left was a crucial component.

The Left must answer these critics without feeling defensive. Communism of the bureaucratic Stalin-Brezhnev variety has collapsed. But the core-ideas of human emancipation at its root haven't lost their vitality or appeal. These must be defended and fleshed out.

The Left's agenda must not appear to be merely "negative" -- saying no to privatisation, FDI in retail, erosion of human rights, etc. The Left is fully justified in demanding the right to unionism and collective bargaining -- including in Information Technology companies.

But that's not enough. The Left must enunciate positive agendas. It must propose an alternative vision of the economy, with an emphasis on equity, reduction of disparities, and progressive macro-economic policies.

The Left must outline its vision at the micro level -- healthcare, employment, agriculture, education, empowerment of Dalits, urban planning, housing, and social security.

That will strengthen its role as pressure-group rooted in popular struggles for justice, equality and peace. This role is indispensable.

Praful Bidwai is an eminent Indian columnist.