CPM congress sends out mixed signals

But the party did not entirely rule out an encore to the UPA-Left show either—preferring to “cross the bridge when we come to it”, as Sitaram Yechury put it in Coimbatore. The CPI(M) party organisation report that slammed the UPA for taking the Left for granted—to the extent of forcing the Left to even stop briefing the press after the UPA-Left coordination meets because the UPA had been given to “holding discussions and then announcing that the Left has agreed to go ahead with their policies”—didn’t say much about how things would play out.

Policies and governance are other grey zones. The party’s national tactical line may really not make much sense to its leaderships in Bengal and Kerala. If Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was categoric in Coimbatore that the party only wanted the MNCs kept out and would have Indian biggies in retail with some regulatory hoops in place, this was what his politburo colleague and party secretary in Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, had announced barely six weeks ago: “The Left is of the firm view that no retail major—national or international—should be allowed entry into Kerala. The Left Democratic Front has decided that local self-governments should not sanction them anymore.”

It won’t be easy for the Kerala unit of the party to take the Coimbatore line now, after asking all its local bodies to sleep over retail licenses. The CPI(M)-held Kochi city corporation in Kerala had declared only last week that it would completely stop licensing retail chain outlets—Indian or international—and clamp huge fees on other supermarkets wanting to expand. Besides, the Kerala government has committed itself to a Bill that hopes to keep out big Indian retail chains.

While Buddhadeb talked about the party’s okay to have the World Bank and others bankrolling projects, V.S. Achuthanandan has yet to live down his own government taking an ADB loan in Kerala. Again, if Buddhadeb declared in Coimbatore that his government may offer farmland to industrialists since the 23 per cent of available land for industries won’t do, V.S. Achuthanandan is finalising a piece of legislation banning the use of paddy farms—even those farmed just once, at some point of time—for anything other than paddy farming.

The party congress had merely wanted a rational regulation of SEZs and Bengal has managed to have five of those with five more on the drawing board. Kerala has one, but even that is now becoming an irritant.

The CPI(M) leadership’s development diktats to the states at Coimbatore have been no less confusing. The party congress asked Bengal to focus on industrial development and Kerala on the services sectors, but had no such trajectory directions for comrades in other, non-party ruled states.