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Kerala CITU disappointed as CPI-M fails to lend its ears

D Jose in Thiruvananthapuram

The trade union group in the Communist Party of India-Marxist in Kerala, controlled by the Centre for Indian Trade Unions, feels quite let down by the party's national leadership.

Reason being, the leadership has clubbed its complaints against the conduct of the state committee election with those against the activities of the Save CPI-M Forum.

A three-member committee, headed by Prakash Karat and comprising S Ramachandran Pillai and P Ramachandran, all members of the Politburo, has been appointed to look into the complaints made by the CITU and Achutanandan faction, and the subsequent campaign by the Save CPI-M forum, after the recently-concluded central committee meeting discussed the issue.

A top CITU leader told Rediff On The NeT that the decision to club the issues was an acknowledgement of the rival faction's charge that the CITU was behind the Save CPI-M Forum, which sprang up in different parts of the state after the Palakkad state conference in January. He claimed that the Achutanandan faction, which made all attempts to trace the leaders behind the forum, could not identify any CITU leader linked with it so far.

"We neither have any association with it nor are we responsible for the pamphlets being published from various districts. We have raised our complaints with the proper forum in the party," he said.

The pamphlets virtually indicted V S Achutanandan for his attempt to eliminate top CITU leaders like M M Lawrence, K N Ravindranath and V B Cherian from the state committee, using his group's technical majority.

Earlier, the CITU group had also accused Achutanandan of staging a coup at the Palakkad meeting. The similarity in the nature of the complaints had prompted the Achutanandan faction to surmise that some top CITU leaders were behind the Save CPI-M Forum, indulging in 'anti-party' activities.

The Achutanandan group is not unnerved by the allegations as the state committee election was held in the presence of central leaders including party general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet. In fact, Surjeet had reprimanded Politburo member E Balanandan for rushing to the press with his complaints.

Incidentally, Karat, who heads the inquiry panel, had presided over the election process as returning officer. The CITU leaders are apprehensive about fair-play from the inquiry panel for this very reason.

Political observers feel the present move by the national leadership to bring an end to the group war may only help in aggravating it. They feel that unity can be restored only if the Achutanandan group is ready to accommodate its rivals.

Achutanandan, however, is trying to consolidate his position. His appointment as the chief editor of Deshabhimani, the CPI-M daily, in place of the late E M S Namboodiripad, has only confounded the CITU leadership's fears. For, besides the central inquiry, the state committee has also initiated a probe against some top CITU leaders for anti-party activities in the recent Lok Sabha election. The Achutanadan group attributes the defeat of party nominees at Alappuzha, Ernakulam and Mukundapuram to this.

Namboodiripad had also expressed strong concern over the steady growth of sectarianism in the party. In his report submitted to the central committee over the state conference in Palakkad, Chief Minister E K Nayanar, too, had expressed apprehensions on this count.

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