The CPI secretariat headed by Mr. Rajeswara Rao has done something quite unusual. It has issued a public statement rejecting the advice offered by a leading Soviet expert on India, Mr. Ulianvosky, that it should support the Congress (I). This step is unusual on two counts. The CPI leadership does not, as a rule, engage in public controversies with its Soviet friends. And even if it pursues a line which may be somewhat different from the one recommended by Moscow, it does not flaunt its independence which it has done this time. For the statement has gone so far as to say that while “we have high respect for the leadership of the CPSU”, there is today “no international guiding centre as in the days of the Communist International.” Thus in plain words the secretariat has said that it is not bound by Soviet advice. It need not have treated Mr. Ulianvosky as a spokesman of the Soviet leadership. But apparently the Rajeswara Rao group in the CPI has decided to do so in order to put it beyond doubt that it will adhere to the present party line to oppose Mrs. Gandhi’s domestic policies even in the face of Soviet pressure to the contrary. It is no secret that a sizeable section in the CPI has been unhappy with the present policy, that this group has kept up the pressure in favour of a pro-Congress (I) stance even after its leader, Mr. SA Dange, was expelled, and that it has been greatly encouraged by the support it has received in recent months from Soviet sources, Mr. Ulianvosky being only one of them. The Rajeswara Rao faction has clearly found it necessary to meet this challenge headlong.
The statement will, however, not end the debate in the CPI. For the debate reflects the dilemma facing the party. On the one hand, it does not trust Mrs. Gandhi in view of the manner in which she used the emergency between June 1975 and March 1977 and of her government’s current economic policy and, on the other, it would not wish to annoy her too much lest she moves closer to the United States. Similarly, while its own survival demands that it maintains its overall alliance with the CPM, the country’s main communist party, its concern for protecting and promoting Soviet interests in India calls for remaining on the right side of the Prime Minister. The party leadership is thus split between those who give primacy to the party’s survival and those who allot top priority to the cause of Indo-Soviet friendship. This division is not likely to end. Indeed, it is difficult to believe that the Soviets do not appreciate the compulsions behind Mr. Rajeswara Rao’s stance and would be pushing him hard in behind-the-scene discussions. Since Mrs. Gandhi raised the issue during her recent visit to Moscow clearly with the intention of compelling the Soviet leadership to use its influence with the CPI to make it support her, it cannot be ruled out that Mr. Ulianvosky’s article was intended mainly to convince her that Moscow has done all it could.