The Only Fatherland

Are ideologies a pair of binoculars that enable us to see far? Or are they a pair of blinkers that keep us from seeing even that which is at hand? How is it that communists; equipped as they are with the one great Theory that explains everything; fumble ever so often in seeing the obvious? How did the Theory lead them to declare the Second World War as an 'Imperialist War' one day; and a 'People's War' the next? How did it lead them to undertake to sabotage the Quit India Movement for the British? How did it lead them to trumpet the demand for Pakistan 'better than the Muslim League'? To declare in 1947 that India had not really become independent? To insist that Pandit Nehru was just "a running dog of imperialism"? To launch an insurrection in 1949 on the premise that India was ripe for an armed revolution? To fumble so much in their response to the end of the communist bloc? Arun Shourie; one of the most respected commentators on current affairs in India today;...