Grassroots revolt in CPM in Marxist heartland

Despite the efforts of the State leadership to contain grassroots rebel trouble, as had happened in the Ottapalam and Onchiyam, are committees of the party through repression, physical attacks and disciplinary actions, the mutiny due to diversion of the neo-liberal State leadership is fast spreading to more regions.

The party is now facing an embarrassing situation where the revolt against the official leadership has spread even to the local units under the all-powerful district committee in Kannur, known as the Marxist heartland of the State. Party district committee functionaries admitted that such developments were unfortunate but rejected suggestions that these problems were signs of divisionism.

Within a week of the CPI(M)’s Ottapalam area committee in Palakkad district deciding to dissolve the Varod local committee coming under its jurisdiction, the Kannur district committee was forced to dissolve the Ulikkal local committee due to rampant infighting over issues of corruption in a local preparatory school looked after by the party. It should be noted that the first major grassroots rebel explosion had taken place in the party in Ottapalam area committee on issues of corruption and immorality.

The developments at the Ulikkal local committee has sent shock waves through the official leadership, headed by State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, who too hails from Kannur district. Though Kannur district secretary P Sasi, known as one of the most trusted lieutenants of Pinarayi, is trying to project this as a small issue, sources in the party said it was a big embarrassment. This was the first time a local committee had been dissolved in Kannur district.

Faced with an embarrassing situation, the district committee dissolved the local committee installing a 11-member ad-hoc committee the same day as such an ad-hoc committee came into existence in Varod, Ottapalam, also. Incidentally, all this happened on the same day, Friday, when Politburo member VS Achuthanandan tried to woo the rebels in Orkatteri, Kozhikode, back into the party through a public meeting there.

The problems in Ulikkal local committee had started with the objections from one section in the panel against some appointments at the Saradavilam LP School there, looked after by the party. Chandrababu, secretary of one of the branch committees under the Ulikkal local committee, had raised the issue of corruption in the appointment during a party meeting. Naturally, the official faction in the party did not like Chandrabau’s action.

As the row was still alive in the party, Chandrababu had an altercation with a local leader of the party from the official faction just before Onam. The altercation ended in a mild physical engagement but the party saw this as an excellent opportunity to finish off Chandrababu, a very common method adopted by the CPI(M) in places where it was in strength.

A case was registered against Chandrababu charging him with attempt to murder the local CPI(M) leader with whom he had the altercation. The branch committee secretary was arrested on last Thiruvonam day, September 12, on the charge which made bail impossible.

As the issue snowballed into a controversy, the party called a public meeting to explain the situation but the turnout was very low for the meeting, perhaps due to a local hartal and possibly because the party workers did not want to attend it. This enraged the party leadership and moved it to expel Chandrababu, who was still in remand, from the party.

However, when Chandrababu came out of judicial custody after the 14-day remand, he was given a rousing reception by the revolting partymen, sending a clear signal to the party leadership where the people stood and also forcing it into a defensive position. It was after this the district committee decided to dissolve the local committee.

Supporters of Chandrababu said the issue would not end with an expulsion or more disciplinary action. Though the district committee is of the opinion that the issue at Ulikkal has nothing to do with the State-wide divisionist activities in the party, Chandrababu’s colleagues say the district leadership was plugging the leak with darkness.

The first signs of mutiny in the grassroots level in the CPI(M) had come up in the Ottapalam area committee where MR Murali, then vice-chairman of the Shoranur Municipality had taken to task the leadership for its association with corrupt elements and vested interests. Murali and his men formed an outfit locally to fight the “wayward” activities of the official party.

VS visit to Onchiyam complicates CPM’s rebel situation

PNS | Kozhikode

The rebel problem in CPI(M)’s Onchiyam area committee in Kozhikode district has worsened with the intervention by Politburo member VS Achuthanandan on Friday with his speech at Orkatteri, the epicenter of the area’s party tremors. The official leadership of the party had assigned Achuthanandan for the job as a last resort to bring the rebels back after threats by hard-spoken leaders had failed to move the mutiny-makers.

The speech of Achuthanandan, who knew fully well that he was speaking to comrades who had been expelled from or had become unwanted in the party for standing for what he stood for, had a mellowed tone and it resembled more to an appeal to come back than an instruction from a top leader. This was totally contradictory to the stand adopted by the official leadership which even called the rebels “betrayers of the tribe” (Kulamkutthikal) and warned not to try to destabilise the party.

While party State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, Politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and central committee member EP Jayarajan (who was said to be the one who created all the trouble in the area) had warned the rebels in Orkatteri not to underestimate the prowess of the organisation to contain any mutiny. But Achuthanandan chose to be soft on his former supporters and even justified the issues over which they were expelled from the party.

After Achuthanandan’s speech, the rebels, who had formed an organisation parallel to the CPI(M) in Orkatteri, said it was now up to the CPI(M) leadership to make clear who among the leaders was right. “VS says we were right in opposing the transfer of power in Eramala panchayath. But Pinarayi said the decision to transfer power was the correct decision to take by the party. The CPI(M) should now clarify the contradiction,” TP Chandrasekharan, leader of Orkatteri’s new outfit, Marxist Party, said. Chandrasekharan was expelled from the CPI(M) for anti-party activities when he was Orkatteri local committee secretary.

The problems in the Orkatteri local committee and the Onchiyam area committee had started with the official leadership’s decision to hand over the post of president of the Eramala Grama Panchayat, which CPI(M)’s N Venu had been holding, to MK Bhaskaran of the Janata Dal (S). While the district and State level leaders insisted that this was as per an agreement the local leadership said there was no such agreement. They said this transfer of power was the result of a “one-night business negotiation” EP Jayarajan had held with Janata Dal (S) leaders.

The contention was more than enough for the party leadership, and threats of disciplinary action followed. The local comrades – majority of them – reacted by standing with the rebels and they even held several demonstrations that were enough to shake the confidence of the official leadership. The neo-liberalist commanders of the party resorted to their normal methods of repression, threat and expulsions but the local workers resisted all that by floating a parallel outfit, the Marxist Party. The mutiny was even more complete with the formation of an outfit parallel to the DYFI in the name of Revolutionary DYFI.

The confidence level in the neo-liberalist camp dropped to a low when the convention organised by the rebels in October was attended by two of the three remaining participants in the historic communist upheaval in Onchiyam which had seen a bloody police action. It was more than enough the leadership could take and it also pointed at the prospects the party was going to face when elections came.

It was in this context that the neo-liberalist leadership, which had refused permission for Achuthanandan (participant in the Punnapra Vayalar uprising) taking part in the functions organised as part of the 60th anniversary of the Onchiyam action, sent Achuthanandan to Onchiyam to woo the rebels. The rebels responded with a joke that this was an act of repentance by the leadership for not allowing VS to land in Onchiyam so far.

Achuthanandan, in his speech, said the rebels could not be blamed for taking a position against the transfer of power to Janata Dal (S) in Eramala panchayath. He also said that those who had left the party should come back and that the party leadership would be more than happy to welcome them back giving the positions they deserved. But the rebels do not seem amused by the enticing talk.

Responses