Why did Karat, till recently, an ardent supporter of the Kerala CM, suddenly turn against him? The feeling among CPM-watchers is that Karat was forced to come closer to the Pinarayi group, as he had lost the support of the West Bengal party unit..
Fri, Jul 17, 2009
WHY DID CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, till recently, an ardent fan of Kerala CM VS Achuthanandan, decide to turn against him all of a sudden and argue furiously in favour of the neo-liberalists of Kerala led by party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. Why did he think it was worth switching sides, even at the risk of losing his reputation as a straight-natured Leftist intellectual? Was it just because he was convinced that Achuthanandan had violated discipline and Pinarayi had proved himself worthy to lead the party? CPM-watchers refuse to believe it's as simple as that.
They believe that the bad reputation Karat had earned among the West Bengal party leaders, the mounting criticism he faced for the massive defeat suffered by the Left in the recent polls and the birth of a new power front within the top leadership of the party, are the reasons for Karat’s new love for Pinarayi and hatred for Achuthanandan’s steady struggle against the neo-liberalists.
The feeling among CPM-watchers is that Karat was forced to come closer to the Pinarayi group, which literally ruled the Kerala unit with its brutal majority in various committees, as he had already lost the support of of nearly the entire West Bengal party unit. Observers say that Karat had taken the issue of divisionism in the Kerala unit as an opportunity to ensure its support. The divergent positions adopted by Politburo member Sitaram Yechuri on various issues could have also compelled him to seek the support of the Kerala unit, they say.
“In the end, such games in Communist parties are a matter of survival. It is true the developments like the poll defeat and the standoff with the West Bengal unit would not affect his position as general secretary in any way.
more >> But sitting in that chair without the support of any state unit is meaningless and it would only make him weaker. It should have been in such a situation that he decided to act against Achuthanandan to appease the Pinarayi faction,” says a former CPI(M) theoretician, who like VS, does not figure in the Kerala unit's good books.
He points out that Karat, had right from the beginning, as general secretary, been an ardent supporter of Achuthanandan as far as issues of party policy were concerned, and an opponent of neo-liberalism. He had openly extended support to the octogenarian leader over issues like the LDF Government’s decision to go for Asian Development Bank loan. It was with his personal efforts that Leftist academic Prabhat Patnaik, an opponent of neo-liberal Communist ideas, was made the vice-chairman of the Kerala State Planning Board, with the obvious goal of helping Achuthanandan counter the expected efforts of Finance Minister and Party Central Committee member TM Thomas Isaac, the chief strategist of the Kerala neo-liberalists under Pinarayi, to orient the economic policies of the LDF Government towards globalisation.
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