No ‘moral responsibility’ in Reds lexicon

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Communists do not believe in any moral responsibility. CPI(M) general secretary, Prakash Karat while speaking to this newspaper made it clear that despite the worst ever electoral performance of the party,he was not willing to take any moral responsibility.

“Communists don’t have anything called moral responsibility. Communists have straight and direct responsibility,” he said.

Even as there were reports of senior partymen holding him responsible for rapid disintegration of the Marxists in the national politics, Karat kept talking about “collective responsibility.” He said, “ We don’t have any high command. We have a system of collective responsibility.”

While senior CPI(M) leaders had cautioned Karat that any move to snap ties with the UPA might have “disastrous electoral outcome for the party.” Karat apparently went ahead and decided to take the step.
Known for his hardline politics, Karat claimed that “ If you say, I am the hardliner, my party is a more hardliner.”

Karat went on to claim that the central committee of his party instead of questioning the decision to withdraw support from UPA had observed that it should have done it much before India finalised nucelar deal with United States.

However, clarifying further on the electoral failures of the party, Mr Karat said, “The leadership has owned up the mistakes, by reviewing the decisions taken in the last couple of years including withdrawal of support to UPA-I over the issue of Indo-US civil nuclear deal.”

Admitting that mistakes were committed and they have, appropriately, been highlighted, the CPI(M) leader said, “Obviously, leadership is accountable for implementation of decisions taken collectively.

On the question of withdrawal of support, the party has corrected leaders and said that we had to be firmer and should have withdrawn support earlier. Contrary to what people say that I am a hardliner, I think my party is more hardliner. It said, you have not done it properly and I have accepted it.”

On the difference of opinion within the party on supporting UPA presidential candidate, Pranab Mukherjee, Mr Karat said that “it was a settled matter long ago”.

“In 1992, when we took the decision (to support the Congress’s presidential candidate), there were a number of questions in our party. Then the experience showed that it was a correct approach,” he said.