At the close of its State conference in Ernakulam, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leaders sounded ecstatic about the new-found ‘unity’ within the party, terming it as a sign of its burgeoning strength and of factionalism having become a thing of the past.
While this was underscored by State secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, several leaders have viewed the unquestioning acceptance, even fawning adulation by some accounts, of the vision document and the new State leadership panel as holding unenviable portents for internal democracy within the CPI(M).
While the policy document was the need of the hour and marked a watershed, in ordinary circumstances, this would have been debated vociferously and fearlessly, they argued.
“The party is an ocean without waves now,” said a leader in exasperation. “The surface is as calm as death but there is turbulence underneath. The discussants were vying with one another to applaud the new policy line rather mechanically,” he said. “The vibrancy was missing.”
Another preferred to ascribe the delegates’ acquiescence to ‘party discipline’. While many were uncomfortable about the elevation of Mohammed Riyas, who made it to the State committee only in 2018 but was bestowed with two plush portfolios in the present Cabinet, to the State Secretariat, there wasn’t a whimper of protest or a note of dissent. “The façade of youth in leadership roles provided the fitting cover for his inclusion,” said a leader.
A few partymen rued the raw deal meted out to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). Non-inclusion of senior leader P. Jayarajan in the State secretariat and the controversial inclusion of P. Sasi - ousted from the party in 2011 following allegations of sexual misconduct and reinstated seven years later after acquittal by the court - in the State committee, have not gone down well with many.
Some were in for disappointment over poor representation of women in the State secretariat.
“If anything, the State conference has shown that it has become a local party for all practical purposes. Most local parties have nepotistic satraps promoting toadies. The good thing, however, is that some deserving names got included so as to be able to justify the wrong ones,” said a veteran.
