Topic Of The Day:-“Learning from the past”
The CPI(M) doesn’t need ground-breaking theorisation to see what lies ahead. It only needs to consider the history of its counterparts elsewhere. The largest communist party in post-war Western Europe, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) polled 34.4% of the votes in the national elections of 1976. It then made a ‘historic compromise’ to ally with the then Italian equivalent of India’s Congress party, the centrist Christian Democracy (DC), ostensibly to use its mandate to advance a Left-wing agenda.
But during the alliance, it was the Communists who shifted rightward. The secular, progressive PCI found itself back-pedalling on issues such as divorce and abortion, so as not to upset the DC’s Catholic middle class voters. Italy’s parliamentary Left never recovered from this alliance.
Second, more than the Left needing the Congress, it is the Congress that needs the Left. The Congress has always accommodated both leftist and right-wing factions. Its political character is a reflection of whichever faction happens to be dominant at a given point in time.
The most progressive phases of the Congress — especially under Jawaharlal Nehru, and the first eight years of United Progressive Alliance rule, when it passed a slew of pro-people laws — would not have happened without an ideologically committed Left within and outside the Parliament.
Without an influential Left to keep up the pressure, the Congress would simply teeter rightward — not just economically but also socially. It will lose whatever progressive potential it holds at present, and collapse into a pale version of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
That’s what had happened to the Congress in Gujarat, until its progressive tendencies came to life last year following an understanding with the likes of Jignesh Mevani, Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor.
These men were essentially articulating the interests of the Left’s core social base: landless Dalits, jobless working classes, marginalised farmers. The redistributive politics of the movements they led share a natural affinity with the Left. But given the Left’s near absence in Gujarat, they went along with the Congress, despite the latter’s patchy track record in protecting the interests of these groups.
Such political malleability is a characteristic not just of the Congress but of liberalism itself, which the Congress claims to uphold.
In democracies the world over, liberal politics could flourish only until the Left was hegemonic in the social sphere, and this was a hegemony constructed on the back of the labour movement’s victories over capital in the early 20th century. The generous welfare state that defines the West’s advanced capitalist economies is a gift not of liberalism but of the Left. This welfarism began to wither shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed and the Left went into a shell globally, leaving the liberals free to peddle neo-liberal austerity as the panacea for every developmental problem.
MEANINGS AND WORDS
1) Flurry
Meaning: A sudden short period of activity or excitement.
Example: “There was a brief flurry of activity in the hall”
Synonyms: Burst, Outbreak
2) Gleeful
Meaning: Exuberantly or triumphantly joyful.
Example: “She gave a gleeful chuckle”
Synonyms: Delighted, Pleased
Antonyms: Gloomy
3) Obituaries
Meaning: A notice of a death, especially in a newspaper, typically including a brief biography of the deceased person.
Example: “His obituary of Samuel Beckett”
Synonyms: Death notice, Eulogy
4) Metaphor
Meaning: A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else.
Example: “The amounts of money being lost by the company were enough to make it a metaphor for an industry that was teetering”
5) Marched
Meaning: Walk quickly and with determination.
Example: “Without a word she marched from the room”
Synonyms: Stalk, Strut
6) Brandish
Meaning: Wave or flourish (something, especially a weapon) as a threat or in anger or excitement.
Example: “A man leaped out brandishing a knife”
Synonyms: Flourish, Wave
7) Elite
Meaning: A select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society.
Example: “The elite of Britain’s armed forces”
Synonyms: Best, Pick
Antonyms: Dregs
8) Scant
Meaning: Barely sufficient or adequate.
Example: “Companies with scant regard for the safety of future generations”
Synonyms: Little, Little or no
Antonyms: Abundant, Ample
9) Polls
Meaning: The process of voting in an election.
Example: “The country went to the polls on March 10”
Synonyms: Vote, Ballot
10) Dilemma
Meaning: A situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially ones that are equally undesirable.
Example: “He wants to make money, but he also disapproves of it: Den’s dilemma in a nutshell”
Synonyms: Quandary, Predicament
11) Delusional
Meaning: Characterized by or holding idiosyncratic beliefs or impressions that are contradicted by reality or rational argument, typically as a symptom of mental disorder.
Example: “Hospitalization for schizophrenia and delusional paranoia”
12) Alliance
Meaning: A union or association formed for mutual benefit, especially between countries or organizations.
Example: “A defensive alliance between Australia and New Zealand”
Synonyms: Association, Union
13) Marginalisation
Meaning: Treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant or peripheral.
Example: “He worked hard to eliminate social and economic marginalization”
14) Rendered
Meaning: Provide or give (a service, help, etc.).
Example: “Money serves as a reward for services rendered”
Synonyms: Give, Provide
15) Divisive
Meaning: Tending to cause disagreement or hostility between people.
Example: “The highly divisive issue of abortion”
Synonyms: Alienating, Estranging
Antonyms: Unifying
16) Perspective
Meaning: A particular attitude towards or way of regarding something; a point of view.
Example: “Most guidebook history is written from the editor’s perspective”
Synonyms: Outlook, View
17) Dwindling
Meaning: Diminish gradually in size, amount, or strength.
Example: “Traffic has dwindled to a trickle”
Synonyms: Diminish, Decrease
Antonyms: Increase, Flourish
18) Purveyors
Meaning: A person who sells or deals in particular goods.
Example: “A purveyor of large luxury vehicles”
Synonyms: Seller, Vendor
19) Ostensibly
Meaning: As appears or is stated to be true, though not necessarily so; apparently.
Example: “The party secretary resigned, ostensibly from ill health”
Synonyms: Apparently, Seemingly
Antonyms: Genuinely, Really, Truly
20) Pale
Meaning: Seem or become less important.
Example: “All else pales by comparison”
Synonyms: Decrease in importance, lose significance
21) Articulating
Meaning: Express (an idea or feeling) fluently and coherently.
Example: “They were unable to articulate their emotions”
Synonyms: Express, Give expression to
Antonyms: Bottle up
22) Affinity
Meaning: A natural liking for and understanding of someone or something.
Example: “He had a special affinity with horses”
Synonyms: Empathy, Rapport
Antonyms: Dislike, Aversion
23) Hegemonic
Meaning: Ruling or dominant in a political or social context.
Example: “The bourgeoisie constituted the hegemonic class”
24) Austerity
Meaning: Difficult economic conditions created by government measures to reduce public expenditure.
Example: “The country was subjected to acute economic austerity”
25) Panacea
Meaning: A solution or remedy for all difficulties or diseases.
Example: “The panacea for all corporate ills”
Synonyms: Universal cure, Cure-all
26) Contemporary
Meaning: Dating from the same time.
Example: “This series of paintings is contemporary with other works in an early style”
Synonyms: Contemporaneous, Concurrent
27) Staunchest
Meaning: Very loyal and committed in attitude.
Example: “A staunch supporter of the anti-nuclear lobby”
Synonyms: Stalwart, Loyal
Antonyms: Disloyal, Unfaithful, Unreliable
28) Firepower
Meaning: The destructive capacity of guns, missiles, or a military force (used with reference to the number and size of guns available).
Example: “The enormous disparity in firepower between the two sides”
29) Deprivation
Meaning: The damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic necessities in a society.
Example: “Low wages mean that 3.75 million people suffer serious deprivation”
Synonyms: Poverty, Impoverishment
Antonyms: Wealth
30) Lure
Meaning: The strongly attractive quality of a person or thing.
Example: “The lure of the exotic East”
Synonyms: Temptation, Enticement
