Indian Express as a lackey of America begs two questions. One, what are China and Vietnam and Russia by that logic? Their economies depend on America, their communist head honchos are all smiles, laying out both hospitality and concessions thick for American business. Two, where on earth do Karat and his party draw their inspiration and ideology from? Don’t collaborate with America for India’s energy security, he says, collaborate with China and Russia. Of course, the fact that China collaborates with America, as does Russia, is something that we aren’t supposed to take into the equation.

I am wondering. Who are the Left representing? Everyone must have a consumer, a buyer, whether Coca-Cola or the CPM. Which aam aadmi segment do they speak for? Which group of voters wants communism and a terrifying embrace with China? And why should we forget what they did to us while we were singing ‘Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai’? Can Karat and his party conduct an opinion poll and show us just who in the population, and how many, support their views? Being just an aam aadmi, and not an experienced foreign policy expert or political commentator, I asked these questions of people who knew better. “No one,” was the reply. They don’t have a constituency whose views they represent, I asked incredulously. Also I wondered, why are they doing this? The polls in the media show that they will suffer erosion of vote share at the hustings if they insist on walking down this path. The wise men I spoke to were unanimous — this is not about aam janta. In fact it isn’t even about khaas janta. It is about ideology — without any peer or parallel in the whole wide world. It is a supplier driven ideology with no customers. It is Stalingrad, one of them said. I wonder though, in this battle of Stalingrad, who is the aggressor and who the defender?

... contd.