"India will again be reduced to the status of a bonded labour if it is not freed from foreign debts," warned Kishan Patnaik, a socialist ideologue. Patnaik was delivering a lecture in a seminar organised by Vikalp, an NGO on the topic "New Challenges of American Imperialism" held here on Sunday. He also said that in order to fight American imperialism a country should resolve to fight consumerism. "America is not a civilised country as propagated by the media and it is also not the best example of civilisation," said Patnaik. There was barely any opposition to the recent US attack on Iraq. Even a country like China too did not register any strong protest against the US attack. This has only helped to boost America’s policy to dominate the world, he added.
- The tumultuous 1990s transformed the Indian socialist movement beyond recognition with socialists like George Fernandez joining NDA, debunking entire ideological baggage of yesteryears, the criminal-mafia appropriation of social justice under Laloo’s regime in Bihar and most recently the ‘corporate socialism’ of Mulayam Singh in U.P. Against this backdrop, the founding of Samajwadi Jan Parishad in 1994 with Kishanji as its founder President was a significant step towards an alternative brand of socialist politics.
Kishan Patnaik was not only a socialist thinker in his own right, but also probably the most creative of the Gandhians who would expand, enrich and apply the Gandhi-Lohia-J.P. thought to the newer realities of the times. Irreconcilable theoretical differences with Marxism would still not stop him from praising Fidel Castro in following words, “Marxism is an inherent energy which has always heated the hearts of the deprived communities. The heat generated in South American countries is due to Fidel Castro…. Castro is an island of uncompromising resistance among the surrendering nations…” (Samayik Varta, Dec ’03-Jan ’04). Kishan Patnaik adhered to the Gandhian critique of modern civilization and the idea of progress. Most of the developments in late capitalism seemed to him a confirmation of his beliefs.
His prolific pen would react to most of the burning issues of practical politics as well as those of theory, from farmers’ suicides to the ‘clash of civilizations’. The June 2004 editorial of ‘Samayik Varta’ (a journal founded and edited by Kishan Patnaik for nearly three decades) was quick in pointing out that the verdict 2004 was clearly against the new economic policies pursued for the last decade and a half and that the new regime had already started betraying it, a point to remember for all those who wish to carry his legacy through the present and future struggles.
As a young member of the third Lok Sabha, Kishan Patnaik was perhaps the first MP from Orissa to have raised the issue of starvation deaths in Kalahandi in Indian Parliament. The powers that be did not have the guts to admit that stark reality and efforts were made to sweep the starvation deaths under the carpet of false claims and statistical lies, much the same way as governments deal with the phenomenon of starvation deaths and farmers’ suicides today. Between 1964 and 2004, India has certainly changed a lot, but defying the gloss and grandeur of globalisation hunger continues to stalk the villages of Kalahandi and Koraput as doggedly as was seen first hand by Kishan Patnaik in his early political years. Patnaik never lost sight of this fundamental plight of rural India, and securing the right to livelihood for the people on the margin therefore always remained central to his politics and to his vision of development.
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