The recent Kozhikode CPI(M) Party Congress was an important event as it was taking place after four years during which time the party has faced many ups and downs. It has lost West Bengal and Kerala and has seen its worst political defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. It was also held at a time when the whole ideological political line pursued by it came under focus with the party cadres looking up to the leadership for an explanation.
If anyone hoped that this Party Congress would come up with some new ideas and re- invention of the party, it has not happened. At the end of the six day conference the party remains more or less the same with the same tired faces with no dynamism in its thinking or future agenda. The CPI(M) could have taken a lesson from the British Labour party which reinvented itself as the new Labour party under the leadership of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. What is required for the party is to become relevant in today’s politics where the regional players are growing in strength.
Look at what happened in Kozhikode!. The Party general secretary Prakash Karat escaped unscathed from the poll debacle in West Bengal and Kerala as well as the 2009 Lok Sabha polls mainly because he was able to project the failure as the collective failure of the Politburo and the Central Committee. Karat had been blamed for withdrawing support to the UPA-1 government on the Indo-US nuclear issue. The West Bengal delegates had also criticized him for uniting the Trinamool Congress and the Congress leading to the spectacular victory of the Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee in 2011 ending the 34-year continuous rule of the comrades in the state. Some in the party were demanding a change as they saw Karat steering a weak central leadership unable to take decisions. But Kozhikode saved him and Karat was re-elected for a third term. He has four decades of association with the communist movement, beginning from his student days at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Mr. Karat’s re-election represents continuity amid the party’s resolve to set a term limit for its office-bearers to reflect change. The TINA factor helped Karat to get another term . Sitaram Yechury’s time will come next.
An interesting feature of the Kozhikode Congress was that the decisions had been more transparent and some of the delegates spoke freely. The leadership on its part also admitted the mistakes it could have avoided. The CPI (M) central leadership has admitted that there is lack of coordination even at the Politburo level and that has percolated down the line. The other admission was that they failed to implement the decisions of the Coimbatore party Congress.
The Kozhikode meeting has come to the conclusion that without increasing its strength it cannot be a big force. The party is just 16 in Lok Sabha today as against 44 in 2004. Who will listen to the CPI-M with such poor strength? Therefore it rightly came to the conclusion that it has to mobilize the cadres on a priority basis, expand the organization and build contact with the people for better results.
In effect it has embarked on an ambitious three-pronged drive consisting of strengthening the party, increasing the number of seats and unity of the left forces. The party has come to realize that without strengthening the CPI(M) and without broadening the left unity there can be no call for joining with other secular forces to form a Third Front.
Moreover, the main focus is on the organization. Other parties have gone far ahead. Therefore the CPI(M) should be ready to move ahead taking along other left forces. The party has been able to expand in states like Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana and would have to look for more states for expansion.
The other clarity is that while the party is against both the Congress and the BJP, they will be soft on Congress wherever the BJP appeared to be stronger. As a party functionary has clarified the party’s declared stand was that “in the present situation, there was no scope for a third front. “ Elections may come and we will take appropriate decisions on electoral adjustments with regional parties at that time. At the moment, there is no idea of a programme-based third front,” is the clear message,
The purpose of the Party Congress was to provide a platform for introspection. However, the meeting evaded most contentious issues. There was no explanation why the party lost West Bengal after 34 years and how it was reduced to rule just one state from the earlier three. There was also no introspection on how it finds itself with just 16 seats in Lok Sabha from 44 in the earlier Lok Sabha. On the contrary, the political review approving the withdrawal of support to the UPA was unanimously accepted. The question of how the party needed to realign itself in the post cold war era also was not seriously taken up.
However, the future is at stake for the left parties if they do not keep in step with the changing times. If the CPI and the CPI(M) and other left forces unite, then there is a chance for the revival but so far they have been divided in elections and not accommodating each other. The CPI resents the big brother attitude of the CPI(M). The other option is what the former CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan has been advocating for long for a merger of the CPI and CPI(M). This could certainly pave way for the future but there are no such tall leaders who could bring about this unity. Kozhikode Party Congress was another opportunity where the CPI(M) lost a chance to reinvent itself. (IPA Service)
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