Hardly the way to Communist re-unification

CPI's state secretary Kanam Rajendran made a comment during his reporting at the CPI's central zone session at Aluva, that in the matter of Communist parties' re-unification,  lessons are to be drawn from Nepal.  His call on the workers was citing the historic victory of Communist party  in Nepal through the re-unification of various Nepalese Communist parties. 

Kanam,  who pointed out that in the current political situation, a principle-based re-unitingof Communist parties is indispensable,  also expressed the wish that not only the CPI and CPM,  but the entire spectrum of 61 different Communist groups of the country should come together to be one.   It is clear that the background he had in mind is of the 17th Lok Sabha having become almost Communist-free.   Even in Kerala,  where the left front is ruling with  a respectable majority,  the CPI could not get elected even one of its candidates.  And as for the vote share,   as Kanam himself revealed,  that came down from eight to six per cent.  And post-elections,  both parties have been engaged in an exercise to find out the causes of defeat and take corrective measures.  At the same time,  what is happening in the real world?  It is only days since newly appointed General Secretary of CPI, D Raja emphasised the relevance and importancen of Communist parties.  But by that time,  in Kerala the sole state where the CPI has some strength,   an effort is intensifying against the state secretary who leads the party.

The CPI held a march demanding disciplinary action against police officials including Circle Inspector, Njarakkal,  who stood passive during the incident in which DYFI workers blocked CPI district leader P Raju,  who had reached the hospital on Wednesday night to visit AISF workers injured in the clashes with SFI workers in Government College, Vypin.   When the march led to clashes,  police conducted lathi-charge which left 15 injured including Muvattupuzha MLA Eldo Abraham.  Thus an MLA from the second largest party of the ruling front suffered use of force by the police which directly comes under the chief minister.  But although he suffered a major wound in his hand,  CPI state secretary, Kanam Rajendrann not only kept silent on the use of force,   but even went on to remark that afterall the police had not entered the MLA's house to attack him.   This was too much for the party rank and file to digest, which then trigerred a resentment.   As days passed,  instead of the heat of the controversy  about the attack dying down,  it led to the factionalism said to exist within CPI,  to come out in the open. 

When both the party's dissident leader KE Ismail and former MP Jayadevan came out responses in public,  the chief minister assured that the district collector would conduct an enquiry into the police action.  But the party's protest was that it could not accept Kanam's approval of this action as sufficient.   Even before the Collector's report came,  there was controversy over the police claim that there was no fracture in Eldo's left hand.   But the latest bone of contention is not the question whether the MLA's hand was fractured or whether there would be action against the police on that score.  In the circumstances described here,  even as the CPI's central and state leaderships are making calls for re-unification of Communist parties, differences surfaced within the CPI,  a party with a reputation for maturity.   In addition,  rumours are also doing the rounds within the party that chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan was in fact black-mailing CPI's leadership over the alleged dealings by the son of the leader of the party in the state.

Viewed overall,  the largest Communist movement of the country no more has that discipline,  unity or stability left in it – which it could claim in an earlier era.   And as for lasting moral and ethical values,  Communist parties never had any faith in them.   When global Communism crashed following the fall of the Soviet Union,  Indian Communist parties have a record of even surviving that setback.  The UPA government that took office under Manmohan Singh's leadership in 2004,   in fact came into being and continued,  with the strong support of the left wing.  Now,  together with the loss of all such strength,  what transpires is that the party groups who swear by the working class have even lost any hope of making a come back.   Regardless of whether the Communist movement has tided over the indecision on the analysis whether or not the far right of India is fascist,   what is seen is a sad spectacle of the revolutionary party quaking before the upper class movement with its fascist characteristic,  and the government led by it.   And if internal disunity adds to its woes,  the future of the left is certainly doomed.