(Illustration: Saurabh Singh) I WAS BORN in a communist household in Kannur, a stronghold of the Left movement and home to many of its legendary leaders, one of them being my late father. Although he died at the unsuitable age of 41, when I was past four, I grew up on an intellectual and ideological … Continue reading Born In Communism: The Romance of an Ideology That Inspired Us to Dream of a New World
communism
A Fear Called Evergrande
Headquarters of the Evergrande Group in Shenzhen, China (Photo: Getty Images) EVERGRANDE IS A company that has over the decades benefitted massively from the Chinese infrastructure and real estate boom. One of that country’s most valued companies and one of its biggest property developers, it was an entity considered too big to fail as it … Continue reading A Fear Called Evergrande
Pinarayi Vijayan makes history. What makes him India’s most powerful communist leader?
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan (centre) meets party workers in Kannur, May 2 (Photo: AP) THE MORNING of May 3rd, the day after a stunning electoral victory for Kerala’s Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM)-led coalition of which he is the spearhead, Pinarayi Vijayan was seated inside a Bombardier flying him from his hometown Kannur in … Continue reading Pinarayi Vijayan makes history. What makes him India’s most powerful communist leader?
A Report From the 22nd Party Congress of CPM
SPEAKING TO DELEGATES in Hyderabad on the fourth day of the six-day 22nd Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), its triennial summit, General Secretary Sitaram Yechury poked fun at what he called the ‘bourgeois media’ for their distorted portrayal of communists. He specifically named the Malayala Manorama, a Kerala daily, for carrying allegedly … Continue reading A Report From the 22nd Party Congress of CPM
Can the Indian Left Reinvent Itself?
Outside AKG Bhavan, the CPM’s headquarters in Delhi’s Gole Market area, barricades are in place with armed policemen on duty. India’s biggest Communist party in mainstream politics has been at the receiving end of violent protests in the past few years by rival political parties, especially Hindu nationalists, some of whom had barged in, fulminated … Continue reading Can the Indian Left Reinvent Itself?
When Pinarayi Vijayan Put Sitaram Yechury in His Place
LIKE MOST OF his puritanical predecessors in the Stalinist confines of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan is a reluctant conversationalist. His interactions with the media are always guarded. He belongs to a generation of Marxists taught to be tight-lipped about the goings-on of the party apparatus, unlike the CPM’s … Continue reading When Pinarayi Vijayan Put Sitaram Yechury in His Place
Pinarayi Vijayan: The McMarxist From Malabar
ONE MORNING DURING the Emergency, Pinarayi Vijayan, half-conscious after a night-long, brutal thrashing by cops, looked in the face of a senior police officer who had ordered the torture, and said, “Once I get better, I will take revenge on you.” The newly elected Kerala Chief Minister was then 30 and an MLA, and before … Continue reading Pinarayi Vijayan: The McMarxist From Malabar
What’s Left, Comrade Yechury?
One of the amendments suggested to the political resolution presented by outgoing CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat in Visakhapatnam at the 21st Party Congress of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), typically a triennial national conclave, was to incorporate the right to work without fear of party honchos. Under the title ‘Tasks’ in the ‘Draft … Continue reading What’s Left, Comrade Yechury?
Ullekh NP 