What is the difference about?
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) remains divided on the key question of its working relationship with the Congress. In December, the Polit Bureau cleared a political line which said there would be “no alliance or understanding” with the Congress. However, general secretary Sitaram Yechury, along with the West Bengal unit of the party, opposed the “rigid” stand as it left little elbow room for the party, especially in Bengal, where it is facing stiff competition from the Trinamool Congress. As a counter, Mr. Yechury proposed another draft which too said that there could be no political alliance with the Congress but advocated keeping the door open.
The Central Committee, the party’s top decision-making body which has members from all State units, allowed Mr. Yechury to present his draft, along with the draft approved by the Polit Bureau. Mr. Yechury’s draft was rejected by a vote of 55-31. The final decision was left to the party congress and its 700-odd delegates, who meet triennially.
What happened at the meet?
Two months before the 22nd party congress, a draft political resolution was published in all regional languages and circulated to every State and district unit. The CPI(M) now has a little over 5.30 crore members across the country. All members have the right to send an amendment if they disagree with even a word or phrase of the draft political resolution. Nearly 8,000 amendments were received, which even by the party’s own standards were higher than usual. Each year, it gets 6,000 amendments. Over 700 delegates, who are entitled to participation in the congress, discussed the draft resolution threadbare for two days. By the end of the second day, 16 delegates demanded secret ballot on the controversial political line. A secret ballot would have helped many delegates vote outside their State unit’s line. This is especially true for Kerala, which was adamant against Mr. Yechury’s line. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and others argue that the CPI(M), which is in competition with the Congress in the State, cannot work with it at any level.
The 16-member Polit Bureau discussed the issue. A section of leaders, led by former general secretary Prakash Karat, pointed out that the party’s constitution does not have provision for a secret ballot. The secret ballot is allowed only for picking the central committee. Voting in all other cases has to be done by show of hands. The general secretary then insisted that the delegates be made aware of the lacunae in the constitution, putting a possible amendment to vote. The negotiation finally led to a compromise.
Was a compromise reached?
The phrase ‘no alliance or understanding’ with the Congress was amended to read ‘no political alliance’ with the Congress. The word ‘understanding’ was omitted to facilitate interpretation according to the emerging political situation in each State.
What does this mean?
The party may have reached a truce, but it is likely to be temporary. The day after the CPI(M) made the amendment public, Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat said the political line remained unchanged and it was only “rephrased.” As per the interpretation, any understanding with the Congress, like the one the CPI(M) had in the 2016 West Bengal Assembly election, is not “permissible.” It was immediately countered by Lok Sabha member from West Bengal, Md. Salim, who said deleting the phrase ‘no understanding’ was a substantial change which was made after the leadership decided to accept the opinion of the delegates. The divide over the interpretations of the new line is likely to widen in the next few months as the party prepares for the 2019 elections.
