Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping once famously said: “It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice.” His words have often been used to explain the communist nation’s capitalist economic reforms. If its new policy document is anything to go by, Kerala’s CPI(M), which has always looked up to the Chinese Communist Party for inspiration, seems to have taken a leaf out of Deng’s book. Almost three decades after its loud public opposition to liberalisation and privatisation, the party’s recently-concluded state conference in Kollam signalled a paradigm shift in the CPI(M)’s approach towards capital and investment.
From energising a resource mobilisation drive, allowing private participation in the public sector, and increasing fees and surcharges based on income, the ‘New Paths to Lead New Kerala’ document presented by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan proposes a slew of measures to attract investments. The vision document calls for significant private investments to tackle the state’s financial challenges head-on. It unequivocally advocates for private sector participation in sectors such as higher education, industry and tourism to boost the economy.
The CPI(M) changing its long-held stance to face the current challenges is indeed welcome. But the radical shift, which may seem pragmatic to the majority, has not gone down well with some of its allies including the CPI, which claims to be positioned farther left than its big brother. They have already labelled the proposal to run public sector units in public-private partnerships a “dangerous trend” and a “problematic approach”. The chief minister, on his part, has assured that the government would not accept investments with conditions that are harmful to the state’s interests. The new policy is clearly carved from the neoliberal economic framework, but it’s upholstered with a soft socialist cushion. It’s also true that party has been singing these hymns in a hushed tone for a while. It has now shown the courage to loudly pronounce it. The CPI(M) in Kerala seems to have learnt lessons from the party’s decimation in West Bengal and Tripura. It’s good whenever a party takes lessons from history and focuses on the greater good.