So, ideologically, in terms of evolution and change what was the bigger event — Babri Masjid or the collapse of the Soviet Union or change in China?

Both the Babri Masjid demolition and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Because collapse of Soviet Union consolidated the movement towards globalisation, as it happened during the 90s and that laid the foundation for the present day crisis in capitalism.

Why is the change in China not so important?

China does not have a direct bearing like the other two. But it’s very important. It is one of the most creative experiments going on in the history.

But that also led to changes in your mind in terms of economics.

There was and is a change in the mindset and that happened because of all this. It’s actually a fundamental fact of Marxism; it took us a long time to realise it. You have to engage with the existing reality. It’s only through such an engagement that you can change the reality. You can’t fence off anything in today’s world. You have to engage with it. In the process, you have to change it. That was a fresh thinking which came about during the middle of the 90s and in the late 90s and led to many policy shifts in West Bengal. Through our experience we had come to a realisation that land reforms have reached a plateau in West Bengal. In Singur, for instance, for less than 1,000 acres of land, 12,000 people took compensation. That means 12 families on one acre.

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