Dirt on the Left’s misadventures.

Incensed by “revelations” about Promode Dasgupta, one of the architects of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) after the great split of 1963-64, contained in The Mitrokhin Archive II: The KGB and the World, details of which were published in The Indian Express, the West Bengal unit of the party has decided to serve a legal notice on the newspaper.

The Indian Express article in question is here.

The just-released book—the second based on classified material smuggled to the West in 1992 by Soviet defector Vasili Mitrokhin—puts it quite baldly on page 313: ‘‘According to the KGB report, an investigation into Promode Das Gupta, who became secretary of the Bengal Communist Party in 1959, concluded that he had been recruited by the IB in 1947.

The Pioneer’s report enlightens us further.

In Kerala, the other bastion of Communism in India, the Reds, locked in a fiercely contested State-wide civic election that will set the political tone for the run-up to next year’s Assembly poll, are desperately trying to neutralise the Vasili Mitrokhin’s revelations. Most of them cannot cannot deny their Moscow connection during the days of the Soviet Union. The tell-all evidence is provided by their children who were educated in the USSR. Prof Valeri Budarjin, a teacher at the House of Soviet Culture, Thiruvananthapuram, which was later renamed Russian Cultural Centre,was under IB surveillance for his activities. Sensing danger, he retuned to Moscow in 1991. There were several “party villages” in Malabar which had sent 30 to 40 students each to Moscow for studying medicine and engineering. In those days, both the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc took care of everything from surgery for ageing comrades and fellow-travellers to free professional education and training. Foreign jaunts were also very common, mostly sponsored by Indo-Soviet Cultural Society (ISCUS). The CPSU had also helped Communists in Kerala - as elsewhere in the country - by allowing them to sell at marked up prices free and heavily subsidised books and periodicals.

The Left is furious. Its several plans include:

According to Mr Biswas, the CPI (M) “is also planning to send legal notices to Prof Christopher Andrew (of Cambridge University) who has co-authored the book as well as the publishers (Penguin/Allen Lane).”

And to ban the book in India; if not a blanket ban, a “revised edition” at least:

Sources close to the CPI (M) leadership say that the party’s West Bengal leaders are in no mood to relent and will press for “restrictions” on its distribution and sale in India… Officially, all that Mr Biswas is willing to say is, ”Before the book hits the stands, we want it to be revised.”

The Congress on the other hand–surprise!–has rubbished the call for a ban.

Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting S Jaipal Reddy, however, told newspersons in New Delhi on Wednesday that the UPA Government has no plans to ban The Mitrokhin Archives II. “Fortunately I am in the business of promoting more freedom and not denying freedom…”

Perhaps the Salman Rushdie episode has made the party more judicious. Once bitten… However, the Communists are themselves divided on the banning decision. Com. Bardhan quoth:

“Why should we demand a ban? There are so many spy-thrillers in the market,” he has said, adding, “Let there be one more for those who enjoy reading spy-thrillers.”

Something tells me this book is going to become a bestseller in India. Unless it is doctored or worse, banned. It is scheduled for an October 5 release. Do book your copy now.