Religion may have been an opiate to Karl Marx, but his followers in Kerala have turned to the whole Hindu pantheon and the Christian canon to sustain their party.Sri Krishna, Ganesha and St George have replaced Marx, Engels and Lenin in the hoardings put up by the CPI(M) publicising its forthcoming state conference in Palghat, preparatory to the party Congress in Calcutta.In a huge hoarding, CPI(M) General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet dons the role of Krishna, holding the reins of a chariot at Kurukshetra. Another hoarding features Left Democratic Front convenor M.M. Lawrence in the role of St George driving his spear into the mouth of the dragon of communalism.Colourful cutouts of Hindu gods and goddesses rendered spiritual a recent rally organised by the CPI(M). Portraits of Shiva, Saraswati, Ganesha, Subramanian and Sabarimala Ayyappa were shoulder to shoulder with those of Communist stalwarts like Surjeet, E.M.S. Namboodiripad and Jyoti Basu.Further proof of the CPI(M)'s new-found love for religion comes from overseas. During his recent visit to Europe, Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar visited the Holy See to present a copy of the Bhagavad Gita to the Pope.A month later, Nayanar presented another copy to senior Congress leader and arch rival K. Karunakaran. Karunakaran happens to be an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna and religiously visits the Sree Krishna temple at Guruvayur on the first day of every Malayalam month.With his gift, perhaps Nayanar wanted to impress on his political foe that had Karunakaran adhered strictly to the teachings of the Gita, he could have been spared his present isolation in national politics.After the collapse of the Soviet Union and after Chinese strongman Deng Xiaoping proclaimed that the Cultural Revolution had been a mistake, CPI(M) leaders in India suddenly discovered that many of their past actions and attitudes were wrong. It thereafter became fashionable for leaders like E.M.S. Namboodiripad to publicly own up to their own `mistakes'.They now proclaim that the opposition of the undivided Communist Party to the Quit India movement was wrong. When India attained Independence, the Communists refrained from celebrating on the plea that what the country had achieved was only political independence, not real freedom. But today, the Communists vie with the Congress in celebrating the 50th anniversary of Independence.The Communists swore by the Calcutta thesis in the late forties and fifties, but today it is a discarded dogma. They were the first to oppose Five-Year Plans; now the CPI(M)-led Government in Kerala is spearheading a people's planning programme to mobilise popular support for the Ninth Plan.The party was initially opposed to mechanisation in agriculture. When tractors were introduced in Palakkad district in the early seventies, CPI(M) activists set fire to them. Today, many CPI(M) trade unionists make a living driving tractors.Private capital is no longer anathema. Kerala and West Bengal have rolled out a red-carpet welcome to private and foreign capital. Communists were the first to oppose computerisation when it was introduced in the public sector organisations, but they beat a hasty retreat when the realisation dawned on them that scientific and technological advancement is unstoppable.Harkishen Singh Surjeet riding Arjuna's chariot has to be viewed against the backdrop of this communist tradition of committing mistakes and correcting them later. Maybe the communists have now begun to think that Das Kapital was all wrong and the Gita and the Bible were right. Or, by exploiting religion to further political interests, the CPI(M) leaders want to beat the BJP at its own nefarious game.
