1. The state committee of the CPM is currently in session at Alappuzha. They're supposed to take stock of the existing political situation in the state, carry out a comprehensive SWOT analysis and put into place, the way forward for the party highlighting its 'key result areas'. The duration is gonna be for four days but by the second day, unusual things have been taking place with VS Achuthanandan walking out of the session, putting the leadership on tenterhooks. It wasn't altogether unexpected because the personality clash between VS Achuthanandan and Pinarayi Vijayan has been smouldering over the last many years!
Background.
2. Pinarayi Vijayan has been the party's state committee secretary for the past 16 years. VS Achuthanandan, meanwhile, went on to become the chief minister and then, the leader of the opposition during the same period. Somewhere, after the initial years of Pinarayi's secretaryship, differences started cropping up between the two.
3. It started turning bitter when Achuthanandan began questioning Pinarayi's role in the infamous SNC Lavalin case - Pinarayi was the state's power minister in the late EK Nayanar's cabinet when an agreement was signed with the Canadian power company, SNC Lavalin, towards refurbishing the state's power generation units. An important clause in the agreement was that the company would donate Rs.100 crores in the Cancer Research Center at Kannur as a quid pro quo arrangement. It's the whereabouts of this amount that has been contentious!
4. To make matters worse, TP Chandrasekharan - a CPM man, who was chucked out of the party when he'd questioned its autocratic way of functioning - formed the RMP and was successfully taking on the CPM in many of the state's northern hamlets centered around his hometown of Onchiyam. He was brutally murdered by contract killers supposedly hired by the CPM's top leadership! TP was known to be Achuthanandan's man and hence, the latter condemned the gruesome incident in no uncertain terms demanding the culprits' expulsion from the party followed by legal action.
The present state of the party.
5. Pinarayi Vijayan has, over a period of time, come harsh on Achuthanandan's followers in the party with disciplinary action, so much so, that the party's state committee is now packed with his men which has come out with its damning report on Achuthanandan's 'anti-party activities'!
The 'last' fight!
6. It was in protest against the harsh criticism against him that Achuthanandan had walked out of the meeting demanding the following:-
(a) The immediate withdrawal of the state committee's report.
(b) Expulsion of two more party workers - involved in the TP murder case - from the party so that
legal action is initiated against them forthwith.
(c) Pinarayi Vijayan be brought to book for his lapses.
My take.
CPM, without Achuthanandan, will be rendered ineffective to a considerable extent. The ideal thing would be to have a thorough change in the state's top leadership but the sad fact is that there's no second rung leader that has the mass support of the party workers.
Tailpiece.
Just because a man is 93 years old, he cannot be chucked away citing vintage as the reason and 'to pave the way for young blood'. Imagine his angst of seeing the party he help form - yes, he's the only living member of the group that set up the party in its present form after the famous party split in '64 with the walking away of the late SA Dange - doing things that he doesn't quite agree with!
Background.
2. Pinarayi Vijayan has been the party's state committee secretary for the past 16 years. VS Achuthanandan, meanwhile, went on to become the chief minister and then, the leader of the opposition during the same period. Somewhere, after the initial years of Pinarayi's secretaryship, differences started cropping up between the two.
3. It started turning bitter when Achuthanandan began questioning Pinarayi's role in the infamous SNC Lavalin case - Pinarayi was the state's power minister in the late EK Nayanar's cabinet when an agreement was signed with the Canadian power company, SNC Lavalin, towards refurbishing the state's power generation units. An important clause in the agreement was that the company would donate Rs.100 crores in the Cancer Research Center at Kannur as a quid pro quo arrangement. It's the whereabouts of this amount that has been contentious!
4. To make matters worse, TP Chandrasekharan - a CPM man, who was chucked out of the party when he'd questioned its autocratic way of functioning - formed the RMP and was successfully taking on the CPM in many of the state's northern hamlets centered around his hometown of Onchiyam. He was brutally murdered by contract killers supposedly hired by the CPM's top leadership! TP was known to be Achuthanandan's man and hence, the latter condemned the gruesome incident in no uncertain terms demanding the culprits' expulsion from the party followed by legal action.
The present state of the party.
5. Pinarayi Vijayan has, over a period of time, come harsh on Achuthanandan's followers in the party with disciplinary action, so much so, that the party's state committee is now packed with his men which has come out with its damning report on Achuthanandan's 'anti-party activities'!
The 'last' fight!
6. It was in protest against the harsh criticism against him that Achuthanandan had walked out of the meeting demanding the following:-
(a) The immediate withdrawal of the state committee's report.
(b) Expulsion of two more party workers - involved in the TP murder case - from the party so that
legal action is initiated against them forthwith.
(c) Pinarayi Vijayan be brought to book for his lapses.
My take.
CPM, without Achuthanandan, will be rendered ineffective to a considerable extent. The ideal thing would be to have a thorough change in the state's top leadership but the sad fact is that there's no second rung leader that has the mass support of the party workers.
Tailpiece.
Just because a man is 93 years old, he cannot be chucked away citing vintage as the reason and 'to pave the way for young blood'. Imagine his angst of seeing the party he help form - yes, he's the only living member of the group that set up the party in its present form after the famous party split in '64 with the walking away of the late SA Dange - doing things that he doesn't quite agree with!
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