CPM leadership is carrying out hair-splitting discussions on the heavy election debacle they suffered in Kerala. Party general secretary M.A. Baby says even senior leaders have a parliamentary obsession. The party leadership is drafting a rectification document because the party has assumed that the debacle is due to organisational weaknesses. The CPM Polit Bureau, which met in Delhi on June 26 and 27, finalised the rectification document. It will be discussed at the Central Committee meeting to be held on July 11, 12 and 13. The CPM leadership is trying to revitalise the party with a rectification document after fifteen years.
The central leadership of the party has evaluated that the ten-year rule in Keralam had led the leaders to develop a parliamentary obsession. The leadership pointed out the exit of senior leaders such as G. Sudhakaran, T.K. Govindan and T.V. Kunjukrishnan from the party.
The leadership viewed some leaders’ attempts to ensure Assembly seats for their family members as a serious development.
The central leadership did not consider any change in the leadership even though there is opposition, from the branch level to the Polit Bureau, to the continuance of Pinarayi Vijayan and M.V. Govindan as the Leader of the Opposition and State party secretary respectively.
Still, there are reports that the Polit Bureau has not accepted the State Committee report as it is. Apparently, the report does not criticise former CM Pinarayi Vijayan and Govindan.
For communist parties anywhere in the world, wisdom always comes only after committing unpardonable mistakes. They discuss rectification documents several decades after the symptoms of decay emerge. Yet, they remain obsessed with discussing them after several decades.
Therefore, political observers do not see much importance in the latest CPM discussions. They can never break the cocoon and come out to review what actually went wrong. In other words, they never dare to call a spade a spade. That is why they are unable to discuss a change of leadership.
When common people place their hope in Communists, believing in their leadership and intellectual capability, and the same people later reject them for their betrayal, the Communists claim that the people have failed to understand them. However, they never accept that they are working against the wishes of the people rather than according to their prescribed doctrine. Therefore, if society does not follow their preconceived notions, they believe the fault lies with society and not with their leadership and ideology. Such is the Communist leadership in Kerala.
