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The CPI(M) is currently going though one of its worst phases politically, ideologically and organizationally, but most of the time allocated for the general discussion at the delegates’ session of the party’s State conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday was spent for attacks against octogenarian central committee member VS Achuthanandan.
Delegates belonging to the official neo-liberalist faction led by secretary Pinarayi Vijayan termed Achuthanandan, the only surviving founder of the CPI(M), as “agent” and betrayer, accused him of trying to float a parallel organization and even warned that allowing him to continue in the party might affect its very foundations.
According to sources, the criticisms leveled by delegates against Achuthanandan seemed to come out of a determination on the part of the neo-liberalists to disallow him to continue in the party. The attack was so intense that even delegates from districts where the committees still sided with Achuthanandan in the CPI(M) faction war did not come forward to defend him.
Achuthanandan’s critics did not spare the central leadership either. Some delegates from Idukki and Kannur districts wanted the Politbureau to explain in its reply to the general discussions itself as to how it was going to deal with Achuthanandan, whose anti-party activities had already been allegedly proved.
CPI(M)-watchers said such a posture would create an unprecedented organizational crisis for the Politbureau as such situations rarely arose in the party. “With such an intransigent attitude, the Pinarayi faction is trying to create a feeling that the party cannot move forward if Achuthanandan continued in it,” said a former State committee member of the party.
The attacks from the delegates against Achuthanandan came a day after Pinarayi himself presented to the session his working report for the past four years which for all practical purposes was a chargesheet against the octogenarian Opposition leader of the Kerala Assembly. The report even charged him with conspiring with enemies to trap Pinarayi in a graft case.
PN Vijayan, delegate from Idukki district, alleged that Achuthanandan had acted as an agent (of enemies) by interfering in the party affairs of the district without the knowledge of the district committee. M Prakasan from Kannur charged the central leadership with siding with Achuthanandan’s efforts to intensify divisionism.
The neo-liberalists’ determination to ensure stringent action against Achuthanandan was evident from the very fact that the attacks against him on Wednesday had come after general secretary Prakash Karat’s criticism of the State leadership for its failure to inform the central leadership of the facts about the initial refusal of seat for Achuthanandan in the last Assembly poll.
Karat had given clear indications on Tuesday to the delegates after inaugurating the session that the central leadership was not seeing any reason for more disciplinary actions against Achuthanandan by expressing the leadership’s displeasure at refusing seat to him citing health reasons.
However, Achuthanandan, despite his total isolation, refused to succumb to the pressures exerted by his enemies in the party. On Wednesday, he complained to the central leadership that Pinarayi’s working report had leveled false charges against him. He said his enemies were leveling pre-2007 charges which had been discussed during the 2008 conference.
Assuring the central leadership that he had not worked against the party at any time, Achuthanandan accused his enemies in the party of leaking the secretary’s working report to the media conspiratorially. He also said in his complaint that he had never conspired with anybody against Pinarayi in the Rs 374.5-crore SNC Lavalin corruption case.
Delegates belonging to the official neo-liberalist faction led by secretary Pinarayi Vijayan termed Achuthanandan, the only surviving founder of the CPI(M), as “agent” and betrayer, accused him of trying to float a parallel organization and even warned that allowing him to continue in the party might affect its very foundations.
According to sources, the criticisms leveled by delegates against Achuthanandan seemed to come out of a determination on the part of the neo-liberalists to disallow him to continue in the party. The attack was so intense that even delegates from districts where the committees still sided with Achuthanandan in the CPI(M) faction war did not come forward to defend him.
Achuthanandan’s critics did not spare the central leadership either. Some delegates from Idukki and Kannur districts wanted the Politbureau to explain in its reply to the general discussions itself as to how it was going to deal with Achuthanandan, whose anti-party activities had already been allegedly proved.
CPI(M)-watchers said such a posture would create an unprecedented organizational crisis for the Politbureau as such situations rarely arose in the party. “With such an intransigent attitude, the Pinarayi faction is trying to create a feeling that the party cannot move forward if Achuthanandan continued in it,” said a former State committee member of the party.
The attacks from the delegates against Achuthanandan came a day after Pinarayi himself presented to the session his working report for the past four years which for all practical purposes was a chargesheet against the octogenarian Opposition leader of the Kerala Assembly. The report even charged him with conspiring with enemies to trap Pinarayi in a graft case.
PN Vijayan, delegate from Idukki district, alleged that Achuthanandan had acted as an agent (of enemies) by interfering in the party affairs of the district without the knowledge of the district committee. M Prakasan from Kannur charged the central leadership with siding with Achuthanandan’s efforts to intensify divisionism.
The neo-liberalists’ determination to ensure stringent action against Achuthanandan was evident from the very fact that the attacks against him on Wednesday had come after general secretary Prakash Karat’s criticism of the State leadership for its failure to inform the central leadership of the facts about the initial refusal of seat for Achuthanandan in the last Assembly poll.
Karat had given clear indications on Tuesday to the delegates after inaugurating the session that the central leadership was not seeing any reason for more disciplinary actions against Achuthanandan by expressing the leadership’s displeasure at refusing seat to him citing health reasons.
However, Achuthanandan, despite his total isolation, refused to succumb to the pressures exerted by his enemies in the party. On Wednesday, he complained to the central leadership that Pinarayi’s working report had leveled false charges against him. He said his enemies were leveling pre-2007 charges which had been discussed during the 2008 conference.
Assuring the central leadership that he had not worked against the party at any time, Achuthanandan accused his enemies in the party of leaking the secretary’s working report to the media conspiratorially. He also said in his complaint that he had never conspired with anybody against Pinarayi in the Rs 374.5-crore SNC Lavalin corruption case.
