CPI steers around Surjeet unity slight

After CPI(M) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet derided the CPI’s reunification efforts at Kamarhati in West Bengal yesterday, t...

After CPI(M) general secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet derided the CPI’s reunification efforts at Kamarhati in West Bengal yesterday, there is a perceptible rift between the two Communist parties. Nobody in the CPI headquarters at Ajay Bhavan, not even general secretary A.B. Bardhan, was willing to be drawn into a debate.

There were a few whispers that Surjeet’s snubbing was in ‘‘bad taste’’ and its tone different from the carefully worded responses that had come earlier from senior CPI(M) leaders Jyoti Basu and Prakash Karat.

But the CPI was determined to take the ‘‘high moral ground’’ and not join issue straightaway. There was a degree of surprise because the two general secretaries, Surjeet and Bardhan get along quite well and the two would be travelling together to Pakistan later this month.

After much questioning, he said: ‘‘Our approach to the question of broad Left unity on the one hand, and specific Communist unity on a principled basis on the other, is there in one distinct section of the draft political resolution. Nowhere is there a hint of bargaining. We are talking about future challenges, not differences of the past.’’

Bardhan obviously will find out what exactly had provoked Surjeet’s strong utterances against the CPI. The initial suspicion in the CPI camp is that Surjeet probably intended it to be a snub for the unification camp within the CPI(M). Apparently, the Andhra Pradesh CPI(M) state secretary had attended the CPI state conference at Nalgonda and spoken at length on the need for the two Communist parties to come together.

The CPI has decided not to be provoked immediately. As the party’s national secretariat member said, there was a need for discussion on ‘‘the reunification of the two Communist parties on a principled basis’’. He did not believe that there was need for any ‘‘public discussion’’ at this stage. He stressed the similarities in both ‘‘ideological and programme-related agenda’’ at the moment.

If the party really wants to hit back at the CPI(M), it can do so at its West Bengal conference beginning in Asansol on February 19. But CPI leaders hinted this very public spurning of the unification move could be utilised by Left baiters for their own ‘‘narrow’’ ends. ‘‘We expected more sensitivity from the CPM leadership,’’ a leader said.