Southern States - Kerala   

CPI(M) leader courts controversy yet again

By C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM June 14. The Marxist litterateur and CPI(M) State committee member, P. Govinda Pillai, is courting controversy once again. Chastened by the party several times in the past for his utterances and positions that did not vibe well with the party line, Mr. Pillai has this time taken on almost everyone in the party from the late E.M.S. Namboodiripad to the party general secretary, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, to the trade union leaders.

Mr. Pillai's observations, contained in a free-wheeling interview appearing in the latest issue of a Malayalam literary journal, is certain to kick up a row in the party. The interview, refreshing in many ways, covers Mr. Pillai's life and his beliefs and contains near-candid evaluation of the CPI(M) and its leadership.

What is striking about the interview is the tentative beginning that it denotes of a re-evaluation of EMS, A.K. Gopalan and other leaders of the communist movement in general and the CPI(M) in particular. What remains to be seen is how the party and its cadres, brought up on a diet of eulogistic literature on leaders past and present, would take his comments.

But PG, as he is popularly known, seems unmindful of the explosive potential of what he has stated in the interview and feels that a controversy is uncalled for.

``It is not correct to say that I have been too critical of EMS. I have been an ardent admirer of EMS and also a critic of his. If you read the interview closely, you will see that there are large sections where I have tried to highlight EMS' contribution in building the communist movement,'' he told The Hindu today.

In the interview, Mr. Pillai has stated that EMS lacked originality when viewed against the backdrop of national and State politics and that, unlike Basavapunniah, he did not have a deep insight so necessary to lead the Indian movement forward. In his reckoning, the early EMS was far more adventurous than EMS of the later years and he feels that EMS suffered from "ideological confusion."

"The courage that he showed when striving for social change was not there when it came to political change," he says and adds that the collapse of the 1967-'69 CPI(M)-led Ministry could have been averted if EMS had shown a little more pragmatism.

He has, at the same time, cited several aspects of EMS' personality and his important role in the growth of the CPI(M) in Kerala which, in his opinion, is still a "provincial party."

What EMS achieved in Kerala during times of successive crises was something that even Mr. Surjeet could not achieve, he says, and cites the situation in the party in Punjab to buttress his argument. On AKG, he says that the turn he gave to the Amaravathy agitation or his crowd-pulling capabilities were not sufficient to create a "deep movement."

Mr. Pillai's observation about the party politburo member, V.S. Achuthanandan, is also likely to ruffle a few feathers. Besides pointing out that Mr. Achuthanandan, though very efficient, was but an ordinary member of the party during 1963-'64, he has praised the CITU leader and politburo member, E. Balanandan, as "a man with high originality."

He has recalled how Mr. Balanandan had insisted on clipping the wings of the headload workers who had brought considerable ill-repute to the party and how his formulations on the subject were cut out from the party documents. He has, at the same, come down heavily on other CITU leaders terming them "corrupt."

The Marxist veteran has also expressed himself clearly in favour of reunification of the CPI(M) and CPI and an alliance between the CPI(M) and the Muslim League if necessary.

Asked whether he anticipated trouble on account of his observations, Mr. Pillai said that he had not granted the interview to raise a controversy.

To a question whether his remarks meant that the time has come for the CPI(M) to do some candid introspection on where it is headed, he replied, "Well, we are doing that.''

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Groupism harming Congress: Speaker
• Return of Muslim families to Marad put off
• CPI(M) leader courts controversy yet again
• 50 p.c. of GIM projects caught in row: Minister
• IUML trying to scuttle Marad probe: VHP
• Foul play alleged in panchayat secretary postings
• Minister seeks Central aid

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu