Hart talk

Last Sunday, Karat left for Beijing for a eight-day visit, his first trip to the Communist pilgrimage after assuming office. Not just Karat, even CPI general secretary, A B Bardhan has visited China this year. Significantly, Sino-American relations are not at their best at the moment.

Karat has been extremely critical of India8217;s 8216;8216;positive8217;8217; responses to Washington8217;s brief overtures. In a signed article in this weekend8217;s People8217;s Democracy, he even advised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to be cautious in his dealings with the US establishment while on his American tour.

His absence from India does not diminish the heat on the establishment. The impasse over the BHEL disinvestment8212;Karat8217;s preoccupation for the past month or so8212;will continue to bother UPA policy-makers at least till Karat8217;s return on June 18, or maybe till even later, when the PM returns.

A prolonged stalemate of this nature suits the hardball player in Karat fine. And his tough approach is not only about anti-Congressism in an election year: He is also consolidating his own position within his own party.

Insiders say that Karat has moved swiftly to an unassailable position8212;a position of enviable supremacy for a general secretary as young as he is. In West Bengal, he is inching closer to the likes of state general secretary Anil Biswas and senior leader Biman Bose, both organisation stalwarts who desperately need the anti-Congress plank in the run-up to next year8217;s assembly polls. By inducting veteran CITU leader Chittabrata Mazumdar into the Politburo, Karat has lent his ears to murmurs from party entities worried about Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee8217;s unquestionable primacy.

In Kerala, on the other hand, Karat has been taking a different route. The disciplinarian that he is, he is punishing the hardliners for adhering to a defunct political line. Under attack from Karat and his colleagues in the Politburo is senior leader V S Achuthanandan. Karat seems to have thrown his weight behind the Pinarayi Vijayan group, thereby giving succour to the larger faction comprising the likes of middle-roaders M A Baby and reformist Thomas Isaac.

Only recently, Achuthanandan had to step down from the chief editor8217;s job at Deshabhimani. As it is, after the faction-ridden Mallapuram state conference of the party in February this year, the Achuthanandan group has been facing fire. And his faction has been considerably weakened by the exit of E Balanandan, who was eased out from the politburo at the April party congress.

Karat proved the stuff he was made of towards the end of the Budget session itself, directing the Patents Amendment Bill negotiations from behind the scene. During the bargaining, he was unfazed, never budging an inch unless it yielded something concrete in return. Even the prime minister has conceded that it8217;s easier doing business with Karat than with some of his allies within the coalition.

Without mincing words, Karat made his opposition to the Pension Fund Regulatory Authority bill known to the government very early on. Similarly, on the Indo-US strategic relationship, Karat has been caustic. His anti-American stance has hardened since the Iraq war and his foreign policy articles published in People8217;s Democracy have always been extremely critical of the Bush administration.

Again, Karat did not think twice before nominating politburo members Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat to the Rajya Sabha to make up for the lack of party oratorial talent in either House. In the process, Karat and his advisors quietly overlooked the party8217;s earlier position8212;that Rajya Sabha nominees should be domicile politicians. Neither Yechury nor Brinda Karat have lived in Bengal in that sense.

Another CPIM development of immense significance in the Karat era is the marginal tilt away from the Congress. At the end of the last party congress, Jyoti Basu had pleaded that Congress was important for the party at this stage. With 8216;8216;secularism under threat8217;8217;, Basu wanted the CPIM to be more forgiving towards the Congress. Even Surjeet has maintained cordial relations with many in the Congress.

Quietly, Karat is pursuing a more independent line. The party intelligentsia, carefully observant of each of Karat8217;s moves, have accepted this change in direction with alacrity because it helps sustain a political tempo at the grassroots level in an election year.