Sir — This refers to the editorial, “Fraternal fratricide” (January 23). The left today is floundering with no real ideology to speak of. India has moved on and Marxist shibboleths no longer resonate with a young aspirational class. The CPI(M) has not been able to reinvent itself or offer any alternative to the parties in power in the States and at the Centre. The pragmatic Sitaram Yechury realises that his party has in recent times, with its historic defeat in West Bengal, been sliding into national irrelevance with Governments only in Kerala and Tripura. Once sought after as an ally by many political formations, it is today a marginal force. The shortsightedness of Prakash Karat’s line has been in evidence earlier too.
The problem in the CPI(M) is compounded by the fact that the top leadership is not on the same page, the theoretician Karat is refusing to come to any accommodation with other political formations, which could offer the party a lifeline.