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Journalism of Courage
The recently-concluded meeting of the Extended Central Committee (ECC) in Vijayawada has been an exercise in soul-searching,but the party’s heart in West Bengal continues to bleed.
The entire thrust of the four-day session was on saving the “heart” and,as one senior
leader put it,the skin (Kerala) of the party.
An adverse outcome in West Bengal and Kerala,where crucial elections to the Assemblies are due next year,would spell certain doom for the CPM in the country.
The party devoted most of the time during the four days to a “serious and widespread” discussion on West Bengal and Kerala affairs.
In fact,a separate four-page resolution was passed by the ECC on the steps needed to be taken for “re-forging” links with the people in these two states and thwarting the attempts of “reactionary forces” to wrest power from the Left.
The ECC meeting,many presumed,would see CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat in trouble for literally grounding the party’s political fortunes. But that did not happen. Karat successfully pushed through his agenda and the party rallied behind him,with the dissenting voices falling silent,CPM sources said.
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya too had a happy outing as he reportedly did not face much of the (f)ire over the sorry state of affairs in his home state,
the sources said.
Buddhadeb skipped both the inaugural and concluding ceremonies of the ECC meeting though he remained in the city for four-days for the closed-door sessions.
The party identified its “shortcomings” in West Bengal which are related to politics,organisation and (state) government.
“Re-forging links with people” by countering the “vilification campaign” of the “reactionary forces” led by “prime enemy” Trinamool Congress was the panacea that the ECC recommended for the West Bengal unit.
That the CPM is certainly worried about the prospect of losing power after three-and-a-half decades has been made clear in the statements of both Prakash Karat and his politburo colleague Sitaram Yechury,who could not emphatically express confidence about winning.
“Losing elections is not unnatural. We never look at electoral gains,” Karat maintained while Yechury did not want to “presume” the outcome of West Bengal polls next year.
