Dr. Balmukunda Regmi

Communist parties in both China and India are about 100 years old. India was under the British rule while China was facing humiliations as the best parts of the republic were under the control of foreigners. People in both the countries were struggling to get sovereignty in their hands.
Communist Party of China (CPC), established in 1921 in Shanghai French Concession, came to power in 1949. It has already ruled the country for over seven decades. The Communist Party of India (CPI) was formed in 1925 at the first Party Conference in Kanpur. It was later split into several groups. After 32 years of the party’s establishment, the communists were able to form the government in 1957 in Kerala and in 1977 in West Bengal. These are the two India states where leftist parties have a long history of either governing or forming the leading opposition.

China’s success
All communists are communists. But there is one thing special with the Chinese communists. They put an emphasis on Chinese characteristics. This has helped Chinese communists on many occasions. They rejected the ethnicity-based model adopted by Lenin in the Soviet Union, and implemented the model of ‘one country, two systems’. They embraced ‘socialist market economy’, opted not to interfere in domestic politics of other countries and maintained good relations with all nations as long as the latter recognised ‘One-China’ policy. They also saw their glory in old Chinese civilisations and dreamed of building a powerful modern state. Clearly, each of these has helped China in keeping the country united, avoiding unnecessary wars, building economy and winning global support.
The CPC is always vigorous because it is constantly renewing itself and advancing with times. In the past 100 years, the CPC, despite some ups and downs, has always adhered to its original aspirations and undergone tremendous changes through liberation wars, ‘great leap forward’, ‘cultural revolution’, reform and opening-up. Under the communists, China has achieved amazing and ingenious development. At the same time, it has called for sharing development with the world through the joint efforts of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and contributed to peace and development of all mankind. The all-round development advocated by the CPC aims to contribute to global sustainable development, civilised progress and world peace.
China’s fight against poverty has brought appreciable results. It has eradicated poverty, including alleviation of 98.99 million rural populations in the last eight years, achieving its goal as planned, 10 years ahead of the UN's 2030 poverty reduction goals. It has made significant contributions to international poverty reduction with practical examples.
China has become the only country in the world that has succeeded in bringing millions of people out of poverty within a short period of time. In the view of Chinese scholars, such an achievement has been possible due to the CPC’s leadership and unity of different ethnic groups. The outcomes support the CPC stance as it is a party for people, and it has always worked for the interests and happiness of people. China has established the largest social security system in the world.
Successful at home, China is also thinking global. We have witnessed China’s friendly helping hands following the devastating 2015 earthquake in Nepal and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The northern neighbour has tried to help the needy with diagnosis and treatment plans, medical materials and equipment, automobiles, other rescue and support experts. Creating a community with a shared future for mankind has been added to the CPC’s statute.
The CPC has continued to move as per times and circumstances, with nonstop reforms and innovations. The CPC says what remains unchanged is its commitment and loyalty to people. Today, China’s emphasis has shifted to economic quality and scientific and technological innovation. In this process, the CPC has also shown great vigour. It has continued to unite the Chinese people and worked on the great Chinese dream.

Failures of Indian communists
Communists in India seem to have lacked a consistent roadmap to independence from Britain. Somewhere they were joining the Gandhian movement and opposing it elsewhere. Writing in The Hindustan Times (19 September 2019) Saubhadra Chatterji discusses Gandhi’s mass appeal among Indian communists. In his seminal book ‘The Mahatma and the Ism’ (1958), Elamkulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad, a doyen of the Indian communists, underlined that early communists denounced the policies and programmes of “bourgeois leaders, including Gandhi” but “without participating in these struggles and sharing their bitter experience.”
Differences over foreign policies and armed struggles versus peaceful means have divided Indian communists. The communist performance in Kerala is satisfactory in the sense that the grassroots have realised the socioeconomic changes brought about by the communists. The 34-year-long rule in West Bengal, initiated by the charismatic leader Jyoti Basu, could not be maintained under the leadership of his successor nor could it create a welfare society with economic success. Citing it would not be a communist government, a foolish decision by his dogmatic CPI-M prevented Jyoti Basu from leading India as the Prime Minister in 1996, which would have given the communists a chance to expand their influence nationwide.
Unlike their Chinese counterparts, the Indian communists failed in tactical use of unity-struggle with democrats. They could not produce a sellable concept of Indian identity. As seen in the last few elections, Nepali people are pro left. Different communist parties are trying to win the support of people. They played active role in abolishing the monarch. Their tactical relations with non-communists are a success. However, the parties have been badly haunted by their inconsistent domestic and foreign policies, giving up the class-based outlooks in favour of ethnicity-based ones, swinging from non-ownership of property to capitalist lifestyles among the top brass, nepotism and rampant corruption.
Like Indian counterparts, Nepali communists have failed to produce a widely acceptable and realisable concept of Nepali national identity. What is more worrisome is the communist leaders are offering only jargons and have resorted to rhetoric without delivering to the people while in power. Unless the communist leaders can mend their way, they are unlikely to achieve their goals as outlined in their party and poll manifestoes.

(The writer is a professor of pharmacy at Tribhuvan University. bmregmi@gmail.com)