CPI (M) in Kerala - Down in the Dumps, Big Time

I am no part of the media syndicate, and I am not indulging myself into any crusade against the CPI(M), therefore it is only safe for me to presume that Pinarayi Vijayan and his CPI(M) red volunteers won’t manhandle me or crucify me the same way they reacted to the VS supporters at the state conference in Kottayam. But to say the truth, it is less than obvious for common people like us to understand what ideological discussions or strategic planning had taken place in that state conference. The only thing that seem to have happened is that the power and the stranglehold of Pinarayi Vijayan on the party state committee has increased beyond any reasonable doubt. In the paragraphs to follow I would try to convince the readers about the reasons for the title of this column.

For the layman - the ordinary human being, absolutely oblivious of the intricacies of the party politics and its by-products, VS Achuthanandan is the embodiment of everything virtuous and Pinarayi Vijayan, the personification of everything vice. The truth may be different (and that is a big 'may be') and to be honest, I am no expert to attempt finding an answer to this imbroglio, but because of factors yet to be discovered, it is so for a vast majority of common people. And hence they feel that the factionalism prevailing in the party - which some party member once said was just a creation of the media and nothing else but later accepted it to be a reality - is between the forces that uphold virtues and forces that encourage vices. Pinarayi Vijayan has been re-elected as the State Party Secretary and he took control of the 84 member State committee with a majority of his supporters elected. So it is only sensible that the laymen think that the party is down in the dumps, as he tends to think that vice has won over virtue.

Sitaram Yechury recently told at Kottayam, in one of his speeches, that Marxism is a creative science and it is the only science that is capable of explaining the conditions of modern world. Yes, there is no denying the fact that Marxism is a creative science and I must confess that while I was a student of Economics (though I’ve used the past tense, I am still only a student), I was rather overwhelmed by the intellectual essence of Karl Marx’s economic theory. But the question to be asked here is, does the present state committee of the party in Kerala has the scholarly human resource in it to take forward the ideological discussions of the Marxian theory. The answer is not a brain teaser and it is a very emphatic NO. Another reason to believe that the party is down and under.

For the ordinary people, CPI(M) is (read ‘was’) the party of the downtrodden and is the only party that has got the political courage to pick them up from their vicious circle of poverty and hence had great expectations when the party came into power. But what they got is not what they expected, but a worse outcome and a sordid state of affairs. The most striking evidence of this can be seen at the Vallarpadam container terminal site at Kochi, where people were displaced from their homes and were beaten up by the police and the local administration. There is also a condition where the land mafia is taking control of the state’s land resources and there is noone to stop them from their merry march. The illegal HMT land deal is one such affair, where the Chief Minister was attacked from within and outside his party on taking a stand against the culprits. Now the CM, widely considered as the epitome of all good virtues, is being vilified by his own party members and is accusing him for not taking the side of the wrongdoers in this case, which incidentally, it seems, are from his own party. Another reason why this party is at it’s ridiculous low.

What the party is lacking right now is the presence of an ideologue who, with his/her intellectual ideas can show a new way for the party to pursue, so that it can reinvigorate the Marxian ideology based on which it has acquired such great significance in this state. The maximum the present state party leadership is capable of doing, because of their inability and lack of knowledge and understanding of Marxian theories and policies, is to strictly follow the ideas and policies that the party's intellectuals at the center and at West Bengal are saying and doing. But what a lot of party leaders and party members at the state are doing right now, though covertly, is ridiculing those central leaders by saying that they became leaders of the party directly from the Western Universities like the Cambridge, and hence they don't have the experience of working with the people and knowing their problems.

So the party must try right now to find someone from the party within who can lead the party in the future, who can give the party some intellectual ideas on Marxism, so that it gets a new vigour to face the problem of waning public support and help to solve the problems faced by the people. But presuming that the future leaders of CPI (M) in the state would come from the present leaders of DYFI and SFI, it seems highly unlikely and improbable to happen, as these organizations are facing the same malice that CPI (M) is facing now - ideological penury.