Congressmen and Communists

People should not be deceived by the antipathy between congressmen and communists and believe that there is material difference between their policies. Their political policy is the same-socialism-though they fight as tribals do. What we are concerned with are their policies, and where these are not conducive to production and progress, we have to oppose them even though it is congressmen that pursue them. The fact that congressmen carry on a tribal warfare against communists should not mislead us and make us take sides with congressmen and imagine that we thereby help a national cause. Political battles should not deteriorate into a kind of tribal conflict which is waged irrespective of policy. Congress has become a tribe and fights the Indian Communist Party as an ancient enemy. It has adopted every shibboleth of the communists. Socialism, atheism and class struggle are the basis of communism. These mark out the present Congress also, unless we make personal loyalty to Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru a separate pillar and principle. The rivalry may be bitter between the congress and the Communist Party, but it is only a form of tribal warfare, not a conflict of principles. The subordination of fundamental citizen-rights to government control and the elevation of the State to godhood is the common faith of both the tribes. The economic freedom of the individual suffers at their hands in equal measure. The men who obtain licences and permits may differ if the rulers be congressmen or communists, but the principle of total ownership by the State is common to both. The distribution of patronage may differ but they both agree on the suppression of the individual. That they fight one another is a misleading tribal phenomenon.