Senescence and socialism are quite compatible, particularly in India. Here ideology is matured in the perfect conditions of biology. So what is the big deal if Jyoti Basu is not allowed to retire, despite the leader's poor health? For `complex' political reasons, the Party wants him to continue as chief minister. The Party has even offered him a wa-lking stick in the form of a deputy chief minister. So, the Party hopes, Comrade Basu, the paramount le-ader of Bengal, will lead for eternity. The CPI(M) ca-nnot afford to hand over the destiny of its most valuable Soviet to some doddering boys.It believes the personality of Basu alone can brighten the prospects of the proletariat. This is some kind of dialectical desperation, truly. This is a party which has always put manifesto above man. Today, it has nothing to depend on except a tired old man who really wants to go home. It seems the intercellular degeneration of the Servant of the Party is a pre-requisite for the continuation of the revolution, todayconfined to a few sub-rural pockets of Bengal and Kerala.And look at the revolutionaries. They are all as youthful as Basu. With Harkishen Singh Surjeet in the vanguard, and Sitaram Yechury, the apprentice apparatchik, in the rearguard, the Marxian revolution is a biological statement of an ideological position. The senior leader, like Basu, has that historical responsibility to carry the revolution forward. The body may fail, but the spirit should not waver. Also, historically, communist wisdom is well preserved in frail, ancient containers.Great Leader Kim Il Sung, Paramount Leader Deng Xiaoping, Wise Leader EMS Namboodiripad they were all VSOP. Today very special Basu is not allowed to retire because his tired wisdom and his familiar face are the only safety net the party has against new revolutionaries of Bengal. Mamata may not rhyme with Marx, but that name too signifies salvation however false it may be. One of the world's longest ruling communists is today a pin-up man of a party which is shortof ideas. The New Man is the antique man.The party tried all ideas, tried all slogans, but lost India. Though the book and the slogans are today part of history's junk, the Indian communists, still haunted by the orphaned spectre of Marx, are refusing to undergo exorcism. For they, their leaders, the old as well as the middle-aged babes, cannot take the risk of losing power, power without responsibility. So they manipulate, they unleash Surjeet, they take the high ground, they won't let ailing rulers leave the chair.We can understand why Castro wo-n't retire. He has an entire country to lose maybe more, maybe his own life. The Indian comrade, who is not really in power, won't retire because one cannot retire from fantasy. It is the fantasy of the fossilised. The remains of history's biggest horror have taken refuge in the mind of the Indian communist for whom the pursuit of power is a permanent hallucination. Our advice: forget Basu, the entire party should take voluntary retirement.
