The CPI(M), which is walking the tightrope between ideological commitment and the pull of popular democracy, now wants leaders to denounce religion.
The CPI(M), which is walking the tightrope between ideological commitment and the pull of popular democracy, now wants leaders to denounce religion and let the cadre keep the faith.
A week after former parliamentarian KS Manoj quit the party saying the CPI(M) was forbidding him from being a practising Catholic, party general secretary Prakash Karat rebuked him in an edit-page article in party mouthpiece Deshabhimani. Karat explained that the rectification document does not ask any party member to discard his beliefs or rituals.
“Important leaders such as state or district committee members and zonal-area committee members are expected to live by progressive values. They should not organise religious rituals or practise religion, though they can take part in social functions where religious rituals have been organised by others. This applies to MLAs, panchayat members and the like,” Karat wrote.
Manoj said the rectification document bars members from practising religions and is unconstitutional. The revolt came after former parliamentarian AP Abdulla Kutty’s ouster from the party and his subsequent victory in an assembly bypoll on a Congress ticket. This was a major embarrassment for the CPI(M), which has been projecting itself as a champion of minorities.
Karat drew from Lenin to justify communists’ tolerance of religious cadre. “Unity in the revolutionary battle of the oppressed to create a paradise on earth is more important than the unity of the proletariat in its opinion of heaven.”
The CPM general secretary said: “In the present Indian situation, CPI(M) is not opposing religion, but communalism based on religious identities. CPI(M) constantly advocates for the rights of religious minorities. There are believers among CPI(M) members…They link their religious beliefs to activism for the poor and oppressed.”
The guidelines on religion were formed in 1996 during the first rectification drive. The current rectification document was approved by the central committee in October last year to “remove the wrong trends and shortcomings so that the party emerges more unified and is strengthened”.
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