CPM will fix number of years for its secretaries

After its worst ever electoral defeat, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) appears to be going through a churning process. After finalising a “rectification plan” to ensure that the party cadres retain their ideological rigour, the party is now contemplating a fixed term for party secretaries down the line.

The matter was discussed at the party central committee’s three-day meeting, which concluded on Sunday. “The context was that an uninterrupted term for senior organisational positions led to a stage where ideas become static,” said a senior central committee member.

Added a source, “We need new energy and fresh minds and it was felt that this (fixed terms) could be a way of doing that.”

If made applicable, all party secretaries, with the possible exception of the general secretary, will have a fixed tenure. “The initial proposal is that no one can hold a position in the party for more than three terms, each term being for three as the gap between two party congresses,” said the member.

Significantly, the only party to have a restriction for its top post is the CPI-M’s ideological rival, the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the BJP, no party president can serve successive terms and each term is for three years.

Of course, the best-known example of restriction in the top job is the United States’ presidency, which allows only two four-year terms, either successively or alternatively.
Party general secretary Prakash Karat acknowledged that restricting party posts terms had been discussed but said it was an organisational matter. Asked whether his own post would be fixed, he replied, “I wish that it was…”

The source also said that any exception to this rule would be allowed in the rarest of rare cases.

“The matter will be discussed in December when the central committee meets again and put into motion during the 2011 party congress,” the source added.