People's Democracy

CPI(M) CENTRAL COMMITTEE’S EXTENDED MEETING

 

Overcome Adversities Through Mass Movements!

Defend National Sovereignty! Isolate Communal Forces!

Defeat Anti-Party, Anti-Left Attacks in Bengal!

 

HELD at Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh from August 7 to 10, the extended meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee concluded its deliberations with the decision to increasingly foster the mobilisation of the working class and other working people on the day to day problems facing them. The meeting also decided to intensify the protest against the neo-liberal policies of the ruling classes, to increase the party’s independent activities, and to augment the strength of the party and of the Left in the country. This important congregation of the CPI(M) underlined the growing attacks on the CPI(M) and on the Left in general, at the instance of the indigenous ruling classes and their foreign collaborators. This fact is most glaringly evident in West Bengal, the strongest bastion of the Left in India, where the reactionary forces of all sorts as well as the so-called Maoists have ganged up behind the Trinamul Congress to conduct a murderous drive the CPI(M) and the Left Front government. Noting the severity of these attacks, the extended meeting of the Central Committee decided to mobilise all the Left and democratic forces against this drive and, as a step in that direction, called for a weeklong countrywide campaign from September 12 to 18, in solidarity with the Left Front against these attacks.

 

Through a separate resolution on the forthcoming assembly polls in West Bengal and Kerala, the extended meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee urged all the progressive and democratic section of the people to join this battle against the reactionary forces, ensure the victory of the Left in these two states and thus take ahead the process of struggle for a better India for the common man. Sitaram Yechury moved this resolution on behalf of the steering committee and Manik Sarkar seconded it.

 

Besides, the extended meeting also adopted a review report on the extent of implementation of the decisions taken at the 19th CPI(M) congress in Coimbatore in 2008, and a political resolution that would guide the party’s tactics in the coming one and a half years, till the 20th congress of the party is held. These two documents were adopted after a discussion that spanned over two days. One recalls that the CPI(M) Central Committee had postponed the holding of a regular party congress till the first part of the year 2012, in view of this very fact that these two states would be going to the polls in May 2011. In fact, this was what necessitated the holding of an extended meeting of the Central Committee, in order to work out a political-tactical line in the changed situation after the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. 

 

On the very first day of the extended meeting of the Central Committee, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat presented for discussion the drafts of the Review Report and Political Resolution in the first and second delegates sessions, respectively.

 

A total of 365 delegates from various parts of the country were expected to take part in this extended meeting, but 14 of them could not come due to illness or other causes.   

 

One of the oldest and strongest centres of the communist movement in Andhra Pradesh, Vijayawada took the responsibility of hosting this special congregation and creditably discharged it. Quite naturally, the area’s history of struggles found its reflection in the common people’s enthusiasm and support for the congregation. The city population related itself to this special occasion through its lively participation in various programmes that took place on the sidelines of the extended meeting. Most important of all, the people’s enthusiasm found its reflection in their participation on the procession and mass meeting on the 10th of August.

 

On this occasion, every single road ad street corner of Vijayawada had been tastefully decorated with red flags, banners, buntings and cut-outs. The main venue of the extended meeting was the Thummalapalli Kala Kshetram, which was rechristened as Shaheed Nagar. The area in front of the auditorium was decorated with huge portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, while the portraits of P Sundarayya, E M S Namboodiripad, B T Ranadive, P Ramamurthi, Promode Dasgupta, M Basavapunnaiah and other founders of the communist movement in the country were displayed on one side just in front of the auditorium. One could see a painting depicting the first (1964) Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) just on the backside of the stage inside the auditorium, while on each side of the state there were portraits of Comrades Jyoti Basu and H S Surjeet, who were the last members of that Polit Bureau. The entire venue underlined the CPI(M)’s glorious tradition of struggle.

 

Opening the proceedings of the extended meeting, Mallu Swarajyam, veteran woman communist leader who had fought during the glorious armed struggle of Telangana (1946-51), hoisted the party’s Red Flag exactly at 10.30 a m in Shaheed Nagar. The loud slogans raised by participants and others on the occasion sent a wave of enthusiasm among one and all. The atmosphere had already been surcharged by the revolutionary songs presented by a troupe of the Praja Natya Mandali.     

 

Following the flag hoisting ceremony, under the leadership of the CPI(M) general secretary, all the delegates paid floral tributes at the martyrs column and remembered those who had laid down their lives while fighting for the people’s cause. Erected just outside the auditorium, the martyrs column was not only imaginative but also inspiring. A martyr’s symbolic tomb was made with a row of plants; one could see a hand come out of the tomb, and it held a red flag aloft in the air. On the adjacent wall was seen a meaningful picture of a poor peasant with his shroud in his hand, and the shroud was seen joined with the red flag on the peasant’s backside. 

 

In the beginning part of its proceedings, the extended meeting adopted a resolution on martyrs, including the 255 cadres who were killed by the Trinamul Congress-Maoist gangs since the last Lok Sabha polls in May 2009. Through a condolence resolution, the meeting also paid homage to Shantimoy Bhattacharya, and to more than a hundred people who had died due to the havoc a cloudburst had caused at Leh in Jammu & Kashmir. On behalf of the presidium, the condolence resolution was moved by M K Pandhe, and the delegates then observed a minute’s silence. 

 

The delegates session started with the hosts inviting the Polit Bureau members to the stage and welcoming them with flower bouquets. On a proposal put forward by the general secretary, the session then elected a five-member presidium with M K Pandhe as its convenor and Benoy Konar, M A Baby, M A Ghafoor and Rama Das as members. The inaugural session of the extended meeting came to a close after the welcome address made by P Ramaiah, chairman of the reception committee, and inaugural speech by Prakash Karat.

 

Immediately followed the first delegates session when Prakash Karat presented the review report on the extent of implementation of the 19th congress decisions. He presented the draft political resolution in the second session in the afternoon. Earlier, a three-member minutes committee comprising U Vasuki, Subhashini Ali and Suneet Chopra was elected to record proceedings.

 

From the first session on August 8 to the second session on August 9, two full days were devoted to discussion on the review report and political resolution. A total of 45 delegates took part in this discussion on behalf of their respective delegations. They were Shrideep Bhattacharya, Jibesh Sarkar, Abdul Razzaq Mollah, Beblina Hembram and Deepak Sarkar (West Bengal), C P Narayanan, Shailja Teacher and K Chandran Pillai (Kerala), Jiten Chowdhury, Bhanulal Saha, Krishna Rakshit, Anil Sarkar, Nagen Jamatia (Tripura), Kanak Raj and Noor Mohd (Tamilnadu), S Virayya and M P S Sharma (Andhra Pradesh), Sanyal (Chhattisgarh), Prasenjit Bose, G Mamatha and Swadesh Debroye (CC Units), Dulichand (Rajasthan), Raghunath Singh and Vijay Mishra (Punjab), Kashmir Singh Thakur (Himachal Pradesh), Albina Shakeel (Delhi), Anant Deka and Deben Bhattacharya (Assam), Santosh Das (Orissa), Sandhya Shaili (Madhya Pradesh), Pragji Bhai Parmar and Subodh Mehta (Gujarat), Sriram Reddy (Karnataka), B L Karad, Vivek Montereo and Ajit Abhyankar (Maharashtra), Ramashray Singh (Bihar), Dina Nath Singh (Uttar Pradesh), Thalman Pareira (Goa), Surendra Sajwan (Uttarakhand), Sarat Salaam (Manipur), Surender Singh (Haryana), Ghulam Nabi Malik (Jammu & Kashmir) and Prakash Viplavi (Jharkhand).

 

The delegates to the extended meeting adopted the review report as well as political resolution in the last session on the 10th of August, after the general secretary had replied to the discussion. Later, on behalf of the steering committee, he presented a report on the amendments the delegates had moved. Out of a total of 278 such amendments, the steering committee had accepted 28. The delegates endorsed the two documents along with the 28 accepted amendments.

 

The extended meeting of the CPI(M) Central Committee came to a conclusion with the determination to overcome the adverse situation created for the party after the 2009 Lok Sabha polls and to rebuff the anti-Left attacks in West Bengal and elsewhere. The slogans raised by the delegates on the occasion gave ample indication of their resolve to fight and defeat the UPA government’s neo-liberal policies, the imperialist onslaught on our nation’s sovereignty, and the depredations the communal and fundamentalist forces are causing, in order to pave the way for an advance of the Left and democratic forces in the country.