TO conclude the whole discussion, let us emphasise the following salient distinct ions of our programme and tactical line vis-u-vis those of the CPI(M) and CPI.

1. Our programme accords absolute primacy to the cause of revolution in India. This is the driving force underlying our consistent advocacy of proletarian independence and vigorous activism and independent assertion and initiative of the Left. In the parliamentary arena, this reflects in our line of revolutionary opposition and in the larger extra-parliamentary context in our pursuit of revolutionary alternatives. Assimilation of this integral revolutionary perspective is the most crucial safeguard against the liberal and revisionist (social-democratic) perspectives which reduce the role of the communist party to that of a mere pressure group.

2. Our programme is alive to the stubbornness and resilience of our feudal and colonial remnants, but at the same time it also declares war on the Indian variety of capitalism. We are against any straitjacketing of the revolution in a rigid schematic framework. Any metaphysical or eclectic approach on this score can lead to a whole range of ideological-political deviations ranging from liberalism/liquidationism to sectarianism/anarchism.

3. As staunch champions of proletarian internationalism we are the sworn enemy of national chauvinism both in its external and internal contexts and dimensions. This enables us to preserve our political and ideological independence against all sorts of vulgar anti-imperialism and tailism.

4. Our programme upholds the banner of democracy boldly and consistently in all spheres of state and society. Our commitment to democracy is however not rooted in any liberal illusion of democracy itself being the solution to all problems. As communists we believe in the primacy and ultimate strength of class struggle and democracy provides the best conditions for a free, broad and rapid development of class struggle.

5. In politics, we accord absolute primacy to the people, their strength, initiative and involvement which alone can serve as a bulwark against the politics of patronage, power-brokering and unprincipled alliances and adjustments. The CPI(M) and CPI not only erect a Chinese wall between economic struggle and political struggle, but they feel that the masses are only fit for economic struggle or struggle for relief and petty reforms while ‘polities’ is reserved for the party, or for the coterie of leaders at different levels to be precise. This robs their variety of politics of all the vigour and vibrance that can only come with people’s politics, that is people's politics for power and transformation.