CPI(M) in Kerala | On a spiral downwards like in West Bengal, Tripura

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The communist party categorises people into two broad classes — the oppressor and the oppressed. While it stood as the oppressed, the singular focus on the betterment of the oppressed gathered trust and helped the party grow into a significant political force in West Bengal, Tripura, and Kerala. But once it assumed power, it gradually exhibited the traits of the oppressor, and embraced the practices it had hitherto opposed. Naturally, the problems snowballed, and resulted in the party occupying only a few seats in Tripura, and becoming a no-show in West Bengal.

But Kerala has been different. One major reason for the party’s success in Kerala is that it never enjoyed a continuous term in the state as the voters always preferred to switch between the Congress and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) — up until 2021, when the CPI(M) succeeded in getting the people’s nod for a second time on the trot. With that, one more thing changed — Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan outgrew the party. This led his government to take actions against the will of the people, with the alibi that they had an overwhelming mandate in the Assembly.

But the developments in the last six months ask back a question: Is it time for the party to batten down the hatches?

K-Rail SilverLine

Without any preparation, the government launched the K-Rail SilverLine semi-high-speed rail project by planting survey stones in private land across the length of the state. It became the oppressor, and gave a cold shoulder to the genuine concerns of the people. As the Opposition uprooted the survey stones, the government started using brute force to quench the protests. Some CPI(M) leaders even threatened that the protestors would be beaten up if they dare to grub up the survey stones. This didn’t go down well with the people, and many thought it was turning out be Kerala’s ‘Nandigram moment’.

Thrikkakara By-poll

Ahead of the Thrikkakara by-poll, the state government decided to keep in abeyance the laying of survey stones, a clear step to calm down public anger so that it would not affect the party’s electoral prospects. The ‘secular’ party fielded a non-political candidate from a significant religious denomination. The Opposition alleged that ministers and legislators invoked community sentiments by visiting and wooing voters of their respective communities — something that was not CPI(M)-like, at least in the open.

The CPI(M) literally made Thrikkakara the political capital of Kerala by stationing the Chief Minister, and nearly all its ministers and legislators in and around the constituency for a prolonged period. This campaign overkill wasn’t necessary in the absence of any exigency to win that seat. The public claim by the Left that it would win the seat and hit a century (it has currently 99 seats in the 140-seat Assembly) sounded like a bid to fulfil somebody’s fantasy, and not in tune with any principled position. Despite all the brouhaha, the party lost by a record margin, and the Chief Minister remained reticent — again, not very CPI(M)-like.

Gold Smuggling Case

The gold smuggling case sprang back into news soon after the by-poll. The prime accused, Swapna Suresh, spoke about the involvement of Vijayan, his family, and his colleagues. The state government acted prematurely by booking the accuser for attempting to cause riots! As the Opposition lined up the streets to wave black flags at the Chief Minister’s motorcade, the police started discouraging black masks and black clothes from his events. Yet, Vijayan made a brazen announcement that there was no ban on black colour!

Swapna Suresh alleged that a middleman warned her that her co-accused would be taken into vigilance custody, and released after an hour. It happened the following day, and soon the vigilance top boss was removed from the position. But the police were keener to slap a case on Swapna Suresh’s lawyer on an unrelated matter. It is evident that the CPI(M), which wholeheartedly welcomed a coordinated probe by the central agencies two years ago, is showing indifference now.

The State revoked the pre-approval for CBI inquiry, and went to the Supreme Court against them. It moved the high court against the enforcement directorate and appointed a judicial commission to monitor the actions of the central agencies.

Filing cases against the accuser can be seen only as abject misuse of power. Instead, the government should have looked into the allegations, like in the solar case where Oommen Chandy took the brunt, sans any evidence. The Vijayan-led LDF government even co-operated for a CBI raid at the Chief Minister’s residence last month in connection with that solar case. Neither the party nor the Chief Minister is honouring their own past demand that the accused must resign for a fair inquiry. Yet again this is not at all CPI(M)-like.

These developments suggest that the CPI(M) in Kerala is drifting away from both the people and its principles, like how it did in other states, and shrank into oblivion. It is a sorry sight that party spokespersons are attempting to write misery memoirs almost every day to defend these unprincipled actions, forcing one to believe that the party may have just started its downward journey in Kerala too.

Sreejith Panickar is a Kerala-based political commentator. Twitter: @PanickarS. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.