CPM meet focuses on dove-hawk split

This, when state CPI(M) secretary Pinarayi Vijayan had clearly aimed to get Bhattacharya’s policy locally legitimised at the Study Congress.

It might be months before the party comes up with a policy document drawing from the extensive debates over 51 key topics here, but indications are that the Kerala CPI(M) is going to change its spots, drastically.

Achuthanandan slammed attempts to unhinge development from politics, saying efforts to evolve policies deciding the future course of the state should not be reduced to an academic exercise. He also countered Prakash Karat and Pinarayi Vijayan who said comrades should seek out FDI as it was ‘‘absolutely necessary’’ for the future.

The Smart City project, an ambitious Rs 1500-crore IT habitat to be set up by the Dubai Internet City in Kochi was an instance— Achuthanandan had vowed to have the entire project ‘‘reviewed’’ after the comrades came to power next year, torn apart the Government decision to pass on land at less than market price for the project — incidentally, the way Buddhadeb went about doing in Kolkata. It nearly got the project scuttled, before the official CPI(M) leadership asserted it was not against the project per se, but only objected to handing over the existing Technopark of the Government for it. No one talks about the land deal now.

Perhaps, a pointer to the drift of things was a key discussion paper in the debate on the state’s development. ‘‘It is not the state but the private sector that can take more efficiently the initiative for a balanced growth in a competitive environment and take Kerala deep into the new economy guided by increased investment and modular productions of sunrise industries and manufacturing — the development agenda calls upon Kerala society to modify its mindset of treating private capitalists, including foreign capitalists, as a labour-exploiting class alone, and instead adopt a proactive approach to encourage foreign capital and private investors…to the mutual advantage of capital and labour.’’

The meet underscored how important the official Kerala CPI(M), considering itself on the verge of taking over power from the Congress-led front in a few months, thinks it is to clamber out of its dogmatic trenches and move ahead. This, especially at a time when the feeling is rife in the state CPI(M) think tank that the party has been increasingly alienating the huge and emerging Kerala middle class — wherein, about 40 lakh educated Kerala youth are jobless.