After the DDF in Tamil Nadu, it’s the neighbour’s turn.
In an unprecedented move, reflecting both despair and desperation, the CPM Politburo, the party’s highest decision-making body, publicly reprimanded and suspended from its membership two of its most powerful leaders Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
With a blazing history of bunglings in the short span he’s been the head of the Reds, Prakash Karat increasingly looks incompetent.
Methinks the suspension is just a public farce not unlike Caesar’s famous refusal of the crown. If Karat was really serious, he would’ve shown the quarrelsome duo the door instead. They’ll be back in business and plotting and counterplotting.
Postscript: Reacting to the suspension, V.S. Achutanandan calls himself an erring child.
Tags: Commentary, Indian Politics, War on Communism
On 05.27.07 netsuffering says:
he he he
all a part of the game
On 05.28.07 Jo says:
PB cannot just throw out VS as he is gaining more popularity amongst the people with his recent actions and now that he drew Smart City also to the state, he could also break the so called ‘anti-development’ image. Throwing out such a person would be like sacrificing the party itself in Kerala. So they played wise by suspending both Pinaraayi and VS.
On 05.28.07 Sandeep says:
Jo,
Hmm… thanks for the info. But do you agree that this is just a farce played out for public consumption? I mean, I know there are serious differences but the stakes are simply too high for the party bosses to take terminal action against both.
What say?
On 05.28.07 Jo says:
Yeah, I agree that “If Karat was really serious, he would’ve shown the quarrelsome duo the door instead” because taking such strong decisions is part of party’s history. Take examples of Gowriamma, MVR etc. But now that the party is in power, and VS is gaining more popularity (and rivals too) than any other recent chief ministers, the party played safe.
On 05.28.07 Sandeep says:
Jo,
Absolutely! Just shows how strong Karat is. Ultimately, it’s power and money, interchangeable. Behind the scenes, the mudslinging, and conciliation would be in heated progress.
On 05.28.07 Jo says:
Does it really surprise you, me or anyone else?
I believe it is the very same for all political parties or politics as a whole in India.
On 05.28.07 SanB says:
“Methinks the suspension is just a public farce not unlike Caesar’s famous refusal of the crown. If Karat was really serious, he would’ve shown the quarrelsome duo the door instead. They’ll be back in business and plotting and counterplotting.”
Pinarayi Vijayan is the CEO of CPI(M) Ltd and hence is Mr. Money Bags. For some time CPI(M) has been a corporation with a political party on the side. CPM in Kerala has demonstrated how to go about from being a political party(1940s) to a Mafia organisation (1960 - 1980s) to a successfull multi-crore business(1990s-) with interests spanning in medical services, tobacco (Kerala Dinesh Beedi), media (kairali) as their primary legal operations. Of course this is while maintaining straight forward extortion operations as the primary fund raising mechanism.
VS Achuthanandan still swears by idealogy when it suits him and some times (again only when it suits him) he does act in accordance to his idealogy. In kerala politics crowded by the likes of K Karunakaran, AK Antony, Pinarayi and Oommen Chandi, VSA is regarded as honest.
So Karat has no choice - if he kicks pinarayi out he will loose the money and if he kicks achuthanandan out then the skeltons will come tumbling out. All of this might happen any way - but there is a good chance that the trio will not rock the boat too much. Pinarayi and CPM has too much money invested, and VS is fulfilling his life long ambition of being CM. So it is in their interest to maintain status quo.
As regards to “party” taking strong decisions - why stop going back K R Gowri and M V Raghavan. You can go further back to KPR Gopalan who got expelled inspite of being key in establishing communist party in Kerala. The “party” has always been democratic about this - if you don’t agree with the leadership then you are out. If you were in the leadership they expect you to fade away quietly or at least not create too much trouble like KPR, KR Gowri, Appukuttan Vallikunnu etc. If you were in the cadre and decided to switch loyalties then you are dead - true mafia fashion. If you had potential to create trouble like MV Raghavan did then they will hound you, and can go to any extreme. They will burn down your house, have absolutely no issues burning down a mini-zoo with all the animals in them or torturing animals to death just because they can.
In any case this will be quite amusing to watch as long as any of the collateral damage is limited to communists and not to any humans or other living things.