THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT 18: For the first time the CPM seems to have given Comrade Stalin the short shrift. At least that is what the banners, cutouts and graffiti in connection with the ensuing Special Party Conference in various parts of the city suggest.Of the usual quartet - Marx, Engles, Lenin and Stalin - which used to enjoy pride of place on such important occasions earlier, only the first two have been retained in most of the campaign materials. The red and black conference poster and the logo, prominently displays only the duo.Lenin too is to be rarely seen. A board, displaying Lenin addressing party comrades is the lone campaign material figuring him. It is only coincidental that the board is installed in front of the University College, popularly known as the `Red Fort' of the Marxist led student wing SFI.Quite interestingly Stalin's posters were all over the place during the 13th Party Congress held here in December 1990, when anti-Communist feelings were at its peak. The world was witnessing the collapse of Soviet Union and socialist Eastern Europe. Visuals of people pulling down the Berlin Wall, and busts of Lenin and Stalin from the streets of Moscow, were staple diets of mainstream media.Whether omission of Stalin from its conference campaign is part of a tactic or strategy is not clear. But one thing is clear it cannot be oversight.Though a section of party leaders played down the issue stating that the focus was on the main event. But for the ordinary worker, who has grown up with banners adorning the famous quartet, something is clearly amiss.Says a party sympathiser, ``Omission of Stalin could be a pointer to the `change' the party is tipped to undergo in the coming days''. The more charitable explanation is that the party is going `swadeshi' with EMS figuring in most of the cutouts and billboards followed by A K Gopalan, P Sundaraiyya, P Krishna Pillai and Azhikode Raghavan.Beginning from October 20, at the AKG Hall here, the conference is already in the news as it is slated to make certain crucial changes in the party programme. The major one being setting the `historic blunder' right. The central committee had recently accepted the amendment to the revised party programme regarding the policy to join the Government at the Centre in which the party did not have decisive influence.As part of the special conference, the party is holding a series of seminars on topics as diverse as environment, women empowerment, new economic policy and working class, challenges posed by communal and fascist forces and contemporary relevance of Marxism. The accent on environment and women is unprecedented.A galaxy of CPM leaders including CPM General Secretary Harkishen Singh Surjeet, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, Chief Minister E K Nayanar, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Pinarayi Vijayan, V S Achuthanandan and Sitaram Yechury will speak at the concluding public meeting at Putharikandam Maidan on October 23.
