74 SOCIAL SCIENTIST economically in ihe sense of facilitating capitalist development in the country; politically too, they strengthened the ruling classes by simultaneously weakening the right and left opposition to the ruling party".3 The Palghat session of the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party in 1956 rejected by an overwhelming majority the demand for unity of what was described assail progressive democratic forces from the Congress to the communists3-", It is this line, rejected by the undivided Communist Party, that is being followed after the split by the present Communist Party of India. E M S devotes a full chapter to the Andhra-Kerala elections and assesses the impact of the 'leftward' shift of the Congress. The defeat of the Communist Party in the mid-term elections in Andhra in 1955 marked the beginning of a process through which the Party in one of its strongest bases began to get weaker and disintegrate. The painful introspection forced on the leaders and ranks of the party by the electoral defeat so divided it from top to bottom that, within a few months it ceased to be the expression of the unity of will and action which it has always been held to be. 4 In Andhra, party members went to the polls with high hopes and ended with a small number of seats. At the same time, they had to fight their internal ideological-political battle on the 'leftward5 political shift of the Congress under the shadow of such a major electoral defeat. Though oiher units had to fight this ideological-political battle, they were not handicapped by the stunning defeat in Andhra. As the organization remained intact in Kerala the Communist Party was able to come to office in 1957. All Opposition Disconcerted The Socialist Party fared the worst and the 'leftward5 shift of the Congress led to a total disintegration of that party. Nehru's political strategy (which was repeated by Indira Gandhi in 1967 and led to the 'great split5 within the Congress) helped the Congress Party to consolidate itself defeat and weaken iis enemies. In the book, the attitude of the Congress-led Central government towards non-Congress governments comes under scathing aitack. In Kerala in 1957 and within a decade all over India, the Congress was- beaten in the elections. In 1957 the Communist Party came to office in Kerala and in 1967 non-Congress coalition governments were formed in Kerala^ Tamil Nadu, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Hariyana and Madhya Pradesh as well as in Pondicherry, Delhi and Manipur covering 67.57 per cent of the total population. But these governments were not allowed to last long. In'dira Gandhi, as the leader of the Congress Party (described in the book as the "arch toppler in the making'^) learnt the art in the process of dismissing the elected communist Government of Kerala in 1959. In the chapter titled "Anti-China Hysteria^9 EMS points out that the Communist Party's "political line of opposition to the bourgeois-landlord