CPM veteran Jyoti Basu’s statement on socialism and capitalism, which raked up controversies even within the party, forced general secretary Prakash Karat to explain the whole issue in a detailed statement. It says “based on its programmatic direction, the CPI(M) joins state governments knowing fully well that it has limited powers within the Constitution. Utilising these limited powers, Left-led governments work to protect the interests of the working people, initiate welfare measures and within the limited spheres where it has some powers, put in place policies which are different from that of state governments run by bourgeois parties. The CPI(M) knows fully well that in the states where the Left is in government they cannot build socialism, but undertake some alternative policies within the capitalist system. Land reforms within the constitutional limits was one such step undertaken in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

“Even though the Left Front has been in office for 30 years in West Bengal, capitalist development has been taking place there as in the rest of India. What the state governments can do is to help strengthen the struggle for alternative policies advocated by the Left and democratic platform at the all-India level.

“The CPI(M)’s goal is for the setting up of a people’s democracy, which is a step towards the eventual goal towards socialism. This, as Jyoti Basu said, cannot be done by the three state governments ruled by the Left. The advance to socialism will be realisable only after the Left and democratic forces are strong enough to build an alternative at the national level.

... contd.