New Delhi: CPM general secretary Prakash Karat's clarifications on the recently drawn up rectification document of the party and his stand that communists are not against religion may not be able to stop the cascading effect of the resignation of the Alleppy MP, Dr K.S.Manoj from the party.

The present crisis reminds this nation of the fulminations of the CPM leader against the Central government over its nuclear agreement with the United States with an arrogance unbecoming of a party that is in power only in two of the 30 states. The relentless campaign against the nuclear deal only served to alienate the party from the mainstream of public opinion; the rectification document might further erode the party's strength by believers deserting its ranks.

And when the Catholic MP declared that he chose faith over the political ideology, the repercussions could be far reaching even though the stand of the Communist Party on religion at national and international levels is no secret. The much debated issue of religion versus ideology is bound to influence the faithful to re-evaluate their association with the atheistic outfit.

Communism is a god that failed. If the break up of the Soviet Union heralded the exposure of the communist utopia as a great lie, the time is not far off when the Indian disillusionment with communism will become a historic fact.

This ideology has received a fair trial in our nation and found wanting. It did awaken in the intellectuals, particularly of Kerala, a compassion for the poor and the oppressed and emboldened them against the exploiters, caste-based or money-based. Beyond that it did not cure the state of poverty. The credit for improving living standards should be shared between the exodus to gulf and the education revolution started by the Christian missionaries.

When Dr Manoj was confronted with a choice between two Jews of history, Jesus and Marx, he opted for the one whose influence on human civilization has been far more enduring.

The poor will always be with you!' said Jesus and that statement, though unpalatable from a human standpoint, seems more reliable a truth, than all the promises of a communist utopia. And if anything, signs are that Communism will meet its waterloo in India too in the not too distant future.

If Marxism has served as a fairness cream that did damage to the skin of many nations, the Christian faith, projected as the only remedy for transformation of the human situation, is yet to find a more effective replacement/alternative.

Why did communism prove to be such a fatal attraction for revolutionaries? As Rev Richard Wurmbrand, Rumanian missionary pointed out: ' A revolution is needed. The establishment is ruled by millionaires. The population is divided into an upper class which revels in luxury, a middle class which cares about nothing and a poor class who lives upon crumbs which fall from the table of the rich, though they are the ones who produce all the goods.'

This is a situation in many developing economies and particularly true of India since independence. Six decades of freedom had not made much of a difference. But then what of the communist experiments in West Bengal and Kerala?

This is a critical moment in the life of the party in both states. In West Bengal, its credibility in standing for the poor has been questioned in the land acquisition issue, though it was part of the party's endeavour to attract capital for development. The current attempt to woo industries to the state after the era of looking at the wealthy industrial units as instruments of exploitation may have succeeded to some extent.

In Kerala the land reforms may have done some good to the poor and the landless initially, but now the agriculture sector is facing ruin causing many farmers to commit suicide. Gulf money, that has a significant role in Kerala now, has been invested in building of palatial houses and purchase of luxuries and not in setting up industrial units or creating employment potential.

Communism has converted the hard working poor into a leisurely class , supported through state subsidies, and delighting in middle class pleasures and luxuries. They have learnt to 'reap without sowing' and getting rewards without working.

Jealousy of those who succeed, use of muscle power to deny some their rights and to secure obedience from the unwilling and hatred of opponents mark the party's rank and file at the lower rungs. With the patronage of the ruling party and use of muscle power they are the go-getters whom even the respectable middle class has come to cultivate to be on the right side. In the beginning, party leaders enjoyed a reputation for sacrificial simple living and being free from corruption. But no longer.

In Kerala, both industry and agriculture had suffered because of militant trade unionism nurtured thoughtlessly by the party. The student and youth wings earned a reputation for violence and disruptive activities . They are the ones to enforce bandhs and hartals and intimidate all opposition into submission to their wills. Even the police dare not proceed against them because of the political protection they enjoy.

An earlier attempt to interfere with the contents of the school textbooks attracted the charge that the party was trying to indoctrinate students and seeking to promote atheism. There were storms of protests from all over…

The ferment within and outside communism in India is bound to shatter the citadels of red power. False propaganda, persecution of rebels and secrecy of operations and fascist methods would not be able to hold out for long against the truth that communism has not brightened the future for the poor in this nation.

New technology and science and globalization have dispersed the benefits of progress far wider than what Marx could have imagined in his time; the democratic spirit has empowered civil society to strengthen the fight against exploitation; a host of other developments render his division of society into exploiters and the exploited as unreal. The world has still need for compassion as there are millions in need of bread; if that is not met, the freedom of others to eat their bread in peace will be in jeopardy.

It is said that every break with communism is a religious experience. Particularly, the intellectual's break is the political expression of the perpetual need of the soul whose first faint stirring he has felt within him, years, months or days before he breaks. A communist breaks because he must choose at last between irreconcilable opposites God or man, soul or mind, freedom or communism, observed Whittaker Chambers, an American writer and a prominent defector from communism.

The break up of the Soviet Union clearly proved that all the façade of progress through five year plans was built up on propaganda and considerable attempts at hiding the truth. Malcolm Muggeridge, the Moscow correspondent of the Guardian and an ardent admirer of the Soviet experiment in the thirties got disillusioned and dispatched highly critical accounts of the Ukraine famine to his paper. Though his reports were not readily believed in London, the journalist lived to see his prophesies coming true. (1903 1990)

The god that failed is the title of a book in which six intellectuals of the day described their journey into Communism and their exit from the admired territory. The saw it first from a distance as a vision of the kingdom of God on earth and they dedicated their talents to 'working humbly for its coming.' Later in the course of their experiment with the ideology each discovered the gap between his own vision of God and the reality of the Communist state.

One fact that emerges from the reading of the book is that they were drawn to the Russian system because they had lost faith in democracy and were willing to sacrifice ' bourgeoisie liberties' in order to defeat fascism. Their conversion was rooted in despaira despair of Western values. They were also greatly strengthened by the Christian conscience. The intellectual was aware of the unfairness of his status and privileges which he enjoyed, whether by reason of race or class or education. The emotional appeal of communism lay precisely in the sacrifices both mental and spiritual--which it demanded of the convert.

Communist parties of the world, as they are organized today could not make a better world. Stephen Spender felt that concentration of too much power in too few hands did not augur well for any society because there was nothing to check the few powerful men from being motivated by the lust for power, envy, greed and vindictiveness. Forces producing oppression, injustice, destruction of liberties were present on both sides.

Now to get back to the Dr Manoj episode. His desertion of the party on grounds of his faith will set a precedent for other religiously inclined partymen to follow suit notwithstanding all the clarifications being issued by party functionaries like Karat. His is neither the first nor the last case of disillusionment with the Indian Marxist outfit.

Communism in India needs to change with the changing times. Communists can no longer claim to be the sole champions of the poor. Their material philosophy can not satisfy the Indian mind rooted in the fear of God. Man has a soul besides his body. And God is not dead yet. The Christian faith has a compassion that has gone a long way in educating and strengthening the oppressed classes here. While the selfless communist will still use hatred as a weapon to bring about equality in society, Christ's call for loving and serving one another holds a far greater promise to this nation as well.