The CPI(M) is planning elaborate celebrations ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Namboodiripad govt and wants to invite the Venezuelan President as the chief guest.
NEW DELHI: The CPI(M) is planning elaborate celebrations ahead of the 50th anniversary of the EMS Namboodiripad government, the first elected communist government in Kerala, on April 5. And guess, who the party wants to invite as the chief guest —Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. April 5 also marks the birthday of Karl Marx.
The Kerala government, headed by the undivided Communist Party of India, won the polls in 1957, but was dismissed by the Centre two years later in the wake of the “Liberation Struggle” led by almost all other parties, the Church and an overwhelming section of the media.
Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan on Saturday reiterated his party’s allegation that the EMS government was dismissed in 1959 at the behest of the US.
Achuthanandan, who was here to attend CPI(M) politburo meeting, requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for Centre’s clearance to invite Chavez. After his meeting with the Prime Minister, Achuthanandan said Singh is not averse to the suggestion.
The comrades are very impressed with Chavez who never misses an opportunity to ridicule the US president. Recently, he had called Bush a “devil” saying “the devil himself is right in the house. Yesterday the devil came here and it smells of sulfur (sulphur) still
today.”
Sources said apart from his anti-Bush tirades, the comrades are far more impressed with his “pro-people” measures after becoming the president at a time when Venezuela was “ruined by neo-liberal
adjustments.”
Chavez, according to the CPI(M) is “an ardent, and a self-confessed Fidelista, who struggled hard along with a dedicated team of communists, socialists, and other Left and democratic leadership to accomplish what has been called a Venezuelan turn around today”.
While Chavez may be keen to visit Kerala to commemorate the first anniversary of the first elected communist regime there in 1957, the Congress leaders have declined the invitation.
Expressing regret that former Kerala chief ministers K Karunakaran, AK Antony and Ommen Chandy had rejected his invitation to the function, Achuthanandan alleged that the CIA had tried to stall communist governments in West Bengal and Kerala.
“Then Congress president Indira Gandhi got CIA funds to prevent communist governments in West Bengal and Kerala. Former US envoy Daniel Moinyhan had revealed in his book,” said chief minister V S Achuthanandanadding “it is not surprising that the same Congress is boycotting the anniversary celebrations yet again”.
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