Recently, I came across an article in The Indian Express by writer, teacher and social activist Apoorvanand. It was a rejoinder to some article. Initially, it appeared to me to suggest that there is no need to imitate Lenin’s model of revolution in India. But when I went through the whole piece, I was astonished and highly disappointed. He not only denounced Lenin and the October revolution, but asserted that for the last 6 years, Indians are undergoing the same treatment which was meted out to Russian people by Lenin.  Meaning thereby that Soviet government was as bad as Modi government. Some liberals among us have a problem that they completely turn their eyes away from the class reality of state and the government. How come, someone, in one’s senses, may compare the Soviet state with India’s bourgeoisie-landlord state? On the one hand, the Soviet state represented workers, peasants, and the exploited and oppressed masses; while on the other hand, here is the Brahmanical government of rabid feudal, corporate capitalists. We have studied the writings of many liberal thinkers and leaders, even Gandhiji, Lohia and JP but none has dismissed October revolution and Lenin in such a manner.  After all, how can one even think of it! The role of October Revolution in human history is immortal as it heralded a new era of world history and humanity; it gave birth to a new civilisation and culture. Writers and intellectuals have every right of debate and discussion in the realm of philosophy and concepts. But politics operates in the arena of realities and possibilities. Capturing power in the land of the great French revolution of 1789 which gave the mantra of liberty, equality and fraternity to the humanity, autocratic emperor Napoleon demolished all the values of the revolution. The revolution of 1848 failed in Europe, Paris Commune was crushed. The Russian experiment of democracy by Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks was not only of very low quality but also it was destined to fail. It was in this background that Lenin learning from the experience of failed European revolutions carved the path…