World Socialist Party of India
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The World Socialist Party of India is a small Indian political party based in Calcutta. The party was formed by a group of ex-Leninists consisting primarily of Professor Binay Sarkar, his family, and his students. They adopted the object and declaration of principles of the Socialist Party of Great Britain and, with the help of that party, formally established themselves as a companion party of the World Socialist Movement in 1995.
In common with other parties of the WSM, the WSP(I) was formed as a revolutionary Marxist party, opposed however to Leninism, and seeking to win control of the state by parliamentary means in order to abolish it and establish socialism on a worldwide scale.
Soon after the WSP(I) was constituted, however, doubts began to be raised in the WSM as to its status as a democratic and leaderless organisation, and to its adherence to socialist principles. Some members of the SPGB alleged that General Secretary Binay Sarkar was dominating the Party and acting as a de facto leader. The most damning evidence for this was the 1999 expulsion of one member, and the forced resignation of another, for the sole "crime" of voting against Sarkar in an internal election.[1] Other expulsions were carried out on what SPGB members considered frivolous or innocuous grounds, such as one case where a member was expelled for attending his sister's religious wedding ceremony.[citation needed]
These accusations did not sit well with Sarkar, who refused to address them. Instead, the WSP(I) began to court the Ashbourne Court Group, a small group of ex-members who had been expelled from the SPGB in 1991 for undemocratic behaviour. At the WSP(I)'s 9th Annual Conference in 2003, it formally disaffiliated with the WSM and joined the Ashbourne Court Group.[2]
