CPI(M) top brass torn between Marx and masses

The CPI(M) top leadership is once again divided. The new debate is whether “theoretical discourse,” or “grassroots-level practical implementation,” was the need of the hour, especially when the party was loosing ground in its strongholds of West Bengal and Kerala.

A three-day “party class” in Hyderabad for senior party leaders from December 15 will see repercussions of the divide.

The session will witness an overwhelming presence of the “theoretical” as well as the “dyed-in-the-wool” fraction of the party leadership. However, the two Marxist chief ministers, West Bengal’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Kerala’s VS Achuthanandan, who represent the so-called liberal and practical wing, will abstain from the three-day session to attend to important duties in their states.

For Bhattacharjee and Achuthanandan the timing is not right.

“First, in both Kerala and West Bengal, we will be facing the toughest elections within the next six months and hence it is expected that the chief ministers of both these states might stay back in their areas and concentrate on grassroots-level political and administrative implementations. Secondly, the party will incur expenditure of several lakhs for the three-day session, which to my opinion is unnecessary at this moment. Finally, the session coincides with a two-day visit by Chinese premiere and head of Communist Party of China (CPC), Wen Jiabao, to New Delhi. It would have been better if our leaders had concentrated on meeting him rather than being engrossed in the theoretical discourse,” a senior party central committee leader said.

The list of presiding members of the session is quite eye-catching. Indian Marxist historian and former chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research Irfan Habib, Marxist economist Pravat Patnaik and scientist VK Ramachandran will be some of them.

The session curriculum is equally attractive. From Marxist economy to social reforms and from agriculture technology to quantum mechanics — everything would be covered in the session.

CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat and party members who agree with his opinion explained the need for the session, saying since digression of the Marxist ideology was the main reason for the party’s disaster such classes were necessary for the leaders at this moment of crisis.