CPI (M) Puducherry trolls Gorbachev on his death over his alleged betrayal to communist ideals

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPIM] took a rather distasteful jibe at the last USSR leader Mikhail Gorbachev who died on Tuesday at the age of 91. He is credited with reducing hostilities between the West and the former USSR and bringing the Cold War to an end. However, CPIM Puducherry reminded everyone of the late leader’s uncharacteristic appearance in a TV commercial of Pizza Hut in 1997 and tweeted “Mikhail Gorbachev, a traitor to socialism and the destroyer of the USSR, died at the age of 92.” The commercial add showed Gorbachev walking across Red Square and into a Pizza Hut where people are sharing conflicting opinions about his leadership. But when a lady remarks that it is because of him, they have enterprises like Pizza Hut, everyone in the restaurant unanimously salutes the leader with “Hail Gorbachev!”. Pizza Hut was one of the first entries of US corporations into the USSR. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union appointed him its General Secretary but was forced into resignation in 1991 due to the USSR’s fall, a year after being conferred with the Nobel Peace Prize.