NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has committed sacrilege. It has said that China is rife with growing inequalities, unemployment, regional imbalances and above all corruption. Stating that what is happening in China are “trends alien to Socialism”, the party has called for “Socialism with Indian characterstics”.
This dramatic change in perception, which could be called the “mother of all U turns”, has appeared in the latest ideological document prepared by the CPI(M) to tune the party’s ideological line in sync with the changing global and Indian context. The ideological resolution—being reworked for the first time since 1992—is to be placed in the party congress to be held in April.
Though the CPM has stopped short of calling China a capitalist country, the ideological document says there is huge income gap between the rich and poor. “China has more billionaires today than any other country other than the United States of America,” it says.
According to the CPM, the average group income of the highest 10 per cent has gone up 22 times higher than that of the lowest 10 per cent since 2002. “The last 18 years saw an over 13-fold increase in the urban-rural income gap in absolute terms. In the 10 years from 1997, a period which saw the remarkable economic boom, the share of workers’ wages in national income fell from 53 per cent to 40 per cent of the GDP,” says the ideological resolution.
Chinese disciplinary and supervisory authorities have investigated as many as 119,000 corruption cases in 2010, and the CPM feels that the increasing instances of corruption occurred as a result of the economic policies being followed by China.
“Growing corruption, growing inequalities... these are trends alien to Socialism,” CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury said while answering questions on the party’s new Chinese line.
The CPM has also found fault with the Chinese Communist Party’s decision to admit capitalists as members. “Today a number of entrepreneurs and businessmen have joined the Party. The ideological and political orientation of the Party can come under new pressures with the changing composition of the Party,” the CPM feels.