With the CPM in free fall in West Bengal, Kerala is crucial to the future of the party. Though factionalism at the top of the state leadership dominated the three-day state conference that concluded on Monday at Alappuzha, the party successfully effected a leadership transition, with Pinarayi Vijayan, state secretary for 16 years, making way for Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. What marred the grand gala, however, which was also meant to showcase the growth of the party in its 50th year, was the walkout by one of the CPM’s founding leaders and its popular face in the state, V.S. Achuthanandan, after he was singled out for censure by the state leadership on the eve of the conference. Amid speculation that Achuthanandan, 92, would quit or be expelled from the party, the meet ended with a final settlement of the long-standing factional feud deferred to another day. However, the party dropped Achuthanandan, who leads it in the Kerala assembly, from the state committee, effectively accomplishing a leadership makeover in the state.
But if the CPM wants to expand its political and social base, the issues that the senior leader flagged will need to be addressed by the new leadership. Achuthanandan had pinned down the party leadership on the question of political murders. The CPM has always had a dubious record in this matter, in Kerala and West Bengal. The failure to handle dissent with equanimity has proved ruinous for the party. A party that has been involved in democratic politics for 50 years and run governments in three states for long periods of time has shown a terribly thin skin when it comes to the criticism within. Its years in office have resulted in the party becoming less dogmatic about economic policies. Now, the time has come to reform the party’s functioning and allow cadres to think and act more independently.
