Comrades at loggerheads

The enormity of the factional warfare in the Kerala unit of the CPIM was brought home by the recent elections to the party's state committ...

The enormity of the factional warfare in the Kerala unit of the CPIM was brought home by the recent elections to the party8217;s state committee. By virtually sweeping the polls, the faction led by Politburo member V.S. Achuthanandan has thumbed its nose at those who engineered his stunning defeat at Mararikulam in the last elections and thereby prevented him from staking his claim to the leadership of the party. The swift resignation by the convener of the ruling Left Democratic Front, M.M. Lawrence, and his replacement by Achuthanandan himself was, therefore, a fait accompli.

What is of interest now is how V.S. will use his position to control the government from outside. As Chief Minister E.K. Nayanar has already hitched his cart to the Acuthanandan wagon, there is no immediate threat to his position. Politburo member E. Balanandan8217;s public statement questioning the democratic nature of the elections is unlikely to set the Bharatapuzha on flames and will be dismissed as the cry of a defeated man. However, to view all this purely as a personal victory of Achuthanandan is to miss the wood for the trees. This is because, shorn of all the communist jargon, what the Marxist party is experiencing is an ugly caste war.

Whether the Marxists admit it or not, the party8217;s rank and file consist largely of the backward castes, particularly the Ezhavas, while the leadership is drawn mostly from the upper castes, some exceptions notwithstanding. At one time when some communities were educationally and economically backward, they could not possibly have thrown up leaders capable of running the party or the administration. But that is no longer the case in Kerala, where the numerically preponderant Ezhavas have arrived politically, socially and educationally. They have had the benefit of the enlightened leadership of a great social reformer such as Sri Narayana Guru.

Yet, it is an irony that when it came to entrusting leadership, their castemen found themselves at the receiving end of the upper caste-dominated party. Smallwonder that, despite the CPIM winning an election by virtually projecting K.R. Gowriamma as its Chief Ministerial candidate, it chose Nayanar instead, forcing the veteran leader to leave the party. The second time the upper-caste dominance of the party was about to be challenged, a new stratagem was employed 8212; sabotage the electoral fortunes of the challenger.

It is a measure of the Marxists8217; strong sense of discipline that the leadership has been able to keep all this rumbling under wraps. Factional fights were considered inner-party affairs and they were seldom discussed in public. Even when Gowriamma was thrown out of the party, the supposed disdain partymen have for caste considerations prevented them from expressing their true feelings. But with the media now following up on such developments and the leaders willing to discuss such things in public, the CPIM is no longer the monolithic organisation that it was supposed to be.

Neither Achuthanandan nor his detractors will ever admit that it was caste and not class that mattered in the party. And to buttress their argument, they may even point out that some of Achuthanandan8217;s opponents are Ezhavas themselves. But that does not make caste warfare in the party anything else.