The Marxist King Maker

They called him "the pragmatic Marxist leader". Some called him the Machiavellian Marxist. But 'Pappaji', who came to prominence first as London Tod Singh, found his true calling in dealing with coalition politics at the centre...

(August 02, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) They called him "the pragmatic Marxist leader". For it was he who played a key role in keeping BJP out of power in 1996 and helped Congress form a coalition government at the centre eight years later.

92-year-old Harkishan Singh Surjeet, who was convalescing at the Metro Hospital in Noida since July 25, breathed his last at 1335 hours on August 1, 2008.

The former CPI (M) general secretary was earlier admitted to the hospital on May 6 following a severe cardiac arrest and slipped into coma on May 16. He fought back and was discharged on June 3.

Along with another veteran Marxist Jyoti Basu, Surjeet had played a major role in guiding Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the aftermath of 2004 elections to bring together secular forces.

From a revolutionary to a pragmatic politician and a king-maker, Harkishan Singh Surjeet donned many a role but his dream of seeing a Communist as Prime Minister remained unfulfilled despite coming to a sniffing distance.

Known for his skills in managing coalition politics, the 92-year-old former CPI(M) General Secretary strove all his life for the party to make inroads into the cow belt to remove its tag as a mere three-state phenomenon and to make it a power to reckon with at the national level.

But he will be remembered largely for preparing the cadre-based party to mend fences with arch-rival Congress to form a non-Congress government at the centre for keeping the "communal" BJP at bay and then bringing a Congress-led government in Delhi eight years later in 2004.

Significantly, he was also one of those who played a leading role in ushering in a non-Congress combine in 1989 that saw the first coalition government at the centre with support from BJP and the Communists from outside.

The Marxist veteran had led the CPI(M) through the tumultuous mid-90s playing a king-maker's role but had to remain a mute spectator when the party lost a golden opportunity to head a government.

The decision not to make Jyoti Basu the Prime Minister in 1996, taken largely at the behest of some 'young guns' in the party, saw the Marxist patriarch from West Bengal calling it a "historic blunder" and Surjeet using all his persuasive skills to avert an inner-party conflict.

Surjeet mastered the art of backroom operation and played the game with aplomb.

Though his detractors saw him as a Machiavellian politician, Surjeet's skills surfaced and proved much fruitful later.

A hardcore Marxist, Surjeet did not lust for power, but critics say he had his fingers in many pies and legs in many camps, which became evident when he managed to cobble up an alliance to make Janata Dal leader H D Deva Gowda the Prime Minister in 1996 and then install I K Gujral as his successor.

Surjeet could leverage power game anytime within the ruling dispensation with a mere call to the Prime Minister of the day -- from V P Singh to Gowda and Gujral.

A contemporary of Communist stalwarts like B T Ranadive, E M S Namboodiripad and A K Gopalan, Surjeet was a strong votary of the formation of a third front to fight Congress and the BJP and to bring like-minded parties on a common platform.

Surjeet firmly believed that only a strong CPI(M) can help create a viable third alternative, based on a common policy platform to conduct joint struggles rather than just an electoral alliance, to foist what he called a "people's government" at the Centre.

Elected as CPI(M)'s General Secretary in 1992, a post he held till 2005, he is also seen as a mentor to leaders like Prakash Karat, who succeeded him, and Sitaram Yechury besides a bridge between the old and new generation comrades. Surjeet remained a father figure for partymen till the end.

The grand old man of the Indian Communist movement was instrumental in making the Left bloc extending key outside support to the Congress-led UPA government headed by Manmohan Singh in the wake of a fractured verdict in 2004 Lok Sabha elections, thus averting the possibility of snap polls.

Surjeet made the party's stand public in his address to the 18th Party Congress here in 2005 when he said that there were basic differences between Congress and Left because of the respective class characters and noted that the struggle between the two approaches will continue.

"Nonetheless, we recognise the Congress as a secular party. As the biggest political party in the country, its role has a relevance in determining the secular character of the state at this juncture. It is this concern which led us to extend support to the Congress-led UPA government," he had said.

History turned a full circle when his party took on the UPA and sought to topple the government he had helped form on the issue of Indo-US nuclear deal.

One of the founder-members of the CPI(M) after the CPI's vertical split in 1964, Surjeet had been a staunch opponent of communal politics and kept track of the political happenings despite his age. He was also very vocal in slamming American imperialism and its campaign against Iraq.

Born on March 23, 1916 at a remote village in Jalandhar district of Punjab, Surjeet had his baptism in politics by fire at a very young age of 15 when he joined the 'Naujawan Bharat Sabha' formed by none other than Bhagat Singh and other revolutionaries.

His steely nerves were on show when he dared to tear the Union Jack and hoist the tricolour atop the district court building in Hoshiarpur at an age of 16, only to be shot twice by the British police and landing in jail for the first time. He had spent a total of ten years in prison.

But that was just a beginning for the young 'sardar' as he took the mighty colonial regime head on several times. His gritty act identifying himself as "London Tod Singh" when asked for his name by a judge during a trial made him popular overnight.

Like all first-generation Communist leaders, Surjeet also had to go underground several times to evade arrest, mainly during the Second World War and later between 1948 and 1952 when the party was banned by the first Congress government.He was arrested on several occasions during the period.

Surjeet also worked for maintaining communal harmony during the painful Indo-Pak partition days, when which he was the secretary of CPI's Punjab unit.

His foray into the world of party politics began in 1934 when he joined the banned Communist Party. He became a member of the Congress Socialist Party in 1935 and also started working for the Kisan Sabha, which he went on to head in the early 1950s.

A voracious reader, he edited many papers and party organs including "Dukhi Duniya" and "Lok Lehar" weekly besides penning socially and politically relevant books like "Land Reforms in India", "Future of Kashmir", "Happenings in Punjab" and the "Outline History of the Communist Party".

He started a monthly, "Chingari" (spark) in Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh in 1938 when he was externed from Punjab for anti-British activities.

The veteran Marxist's friends remember that he always wanted to become a poet and took to writing under the pen-name "Surjeet". Although his pen-name remained, he did not become a poet.

An ailing Surjeet was removed from the party politburo at the CPI-M's annual congress in Coimbatore at his request after being a member for decades.

A pragmatic politician with a sharp mind, Surjeet's death brings the curtains down on an era in the country's Communist history and his party will surely miss his analytical skills and political acumen in the days to come.
[Agencies]
- Sri Lanka Guardian