THE once strident cry of the CPI(M-L), "China's chairman is our chairman, Chinese path is our path" is no longer heard, and not for reasons of patriotism only. The Chinese, and those of the comrades, like the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattarcharya, who seek to emulate them, are proving an embarrassment to hard-core Communist ideologues.

The Chinese, in their pursuit of market socialism, have ardently wooed and welcomed direct FDI with open arms, gone in for restructuring of enterprises regardless of "collateral damage" caused to small industries and employment, and pinned labour down to prescribed norms of productivity or else.

The most recent news which has been buried in an obscure corner of The Washington Post and greeted with stolid silence in the Indian media can only be described as momentous. It concerns Hu Yaobang who was the first prominent communist leader to boldly come out in the 1980s in favour of launching economic reforms and letting a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred thoughts contend in politics.

He was sacked and made a non-person by the followers of Mao Zedong in 1987. It was his death in 1989 which brought tens of thousands of reformist-minded Chinese to the Tiananmen Square in an unprecedented demonstration of support.

Old timers will recall the graphic pictures of tanks and guns moving into the Square claiming the lives of hundreds in harsh reprisals.

In a surprise move, the Chinese Government has now decided not only to lift the two-decade old ban on any mention of him in public discourse or official documents but even to go all out to honour him as a hero.

Reportedly, the Chinese President, Mr Hu Jintao himself has given the go-ahead for celebrating Hu Yaobang's 90th birth anniversary in a series of ceremonies beginning from Hunan province where he was born and Jiangxi province where he is buried, and culminating in Beijing, the nation's capital.

The Communist Party of China is also said to be preparing to hold a symposium to discuss his legacy, and publish an official biography and collections of his writings.

There can be no doubt about the meaning of this signal. China apparently no longer sees any need to be apologetic about going full steam ahead on reforms. The slogan "China's path is our path" also should not sound that objectionable any more!

B. S. Raghavan

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