People's Democracy

18TH STATE CONFERENCE OF KERALA CPI(M)

The Party Marches Ahead Against All Odds

A view of the massive public meeting in Mallapuram

KOTTAKKUNNU (the mount with the fort) is the highest point in Malappuram town, the headquarters of the district with that name. Actually, there is no fort there. It was the campsite of British military when it reached there in 1921 in large numbers to quell an uprising of Muslim peasants. Today, it is a vast open field where a mammoth meeting could be held.

On February 22, from early morning onwards, people started pouring in to the Kottakkunnu from all parts of the district to participate in the evening rally and see the march of 15,000 red volunteers to be held in the afternoon. People were thronging not only Kottakkunnu or the roads leading to it but also the vicinity of E K Nayanar Nagar at the other end of the town where the delegates’ session was taking place as also the Arafat Nagar where an exhibition and cultural meetings and events were being held.

The town which usually had a green (the colour of Muslim League) look was all red since February 19, the day the 18th CPI(M) state conference commenced. The roads, junctions and other public places in the district had turned red much earlier with people making the place an unforgettable sight with red flags, festoons and portraits of martyrs and departed leaders like AKG, P Krishna Pillai, EMS and others.

One basic characteristic of the Malappuram state conference, right from the formation of the reception committee to the final public meeting at Kottakkunnu, was the widespread participation of the people. The meeting to constitute the reception committee was not held in a hall but in a maidan so that a few thousands could participate in it. Thousands of former members and sympathisers of Muslim League and Congress enthusiastically took part in all activities connected with the conference.

For the Malappuram Party cadre, the state conference was an unexpected bonanza and they did everything to celebrate it in their own unique manner. They had arranged numerous meetings in all wards of panchayats and municipalities in the district. Apart from these meetings, seminars were held in all major centres in the district from the beginning of February in which eminent personalities from all walks of life took part. This made the Malappuram state conference of the Party a unique experience.

But a major section of the media in Kerala was also making it unforgettable. The ruling UDF which has a brute majority of 100 out of 140 seats in the Kerala assembly has become not only a divided but a disintegrating house. Its major constituents Congress and Muslim League are facing serious infighting. The smaller constituents, the RSP(B) and KC(B) and KC(J), are at loggerheads with the Congress. It is this situation which contributed to the complete wash out of the Congress in Lok Sabha elections and the continuous drubbing the UDF is receiving in local body bye-elections.

In order to save the UDF and the Congress from this predicament, the media have let loose a high-pitched campaign against the CPI(M), predicting that the Party will disintegrate after its state conference.  For the past two years, these sections of the media were carrying on a virulent campaign against the CPI(M) on some ideological issues. The state committee, with the help of the central committee, took unanimous positions on these issues and clarified the points to all Party members and sympathisers. This helped to unify the Party. Then the media tried to divide the Party leadership into traditionalists and reformers and carried on a campaign against the so-called reformers.

Much of these media outlets are owned by sections that subscribe to neo-liberal ideas and policies. Their general position is reactionary and rightist. But they attack the CPI(M) from a Left-extremist position alleging that a section of Party leadership is taking rightist positions. Their arguments are leftist ones, formulated and mouthed by rightist elements. People have been able to see through their game.  

Red shirt volunteers marching at the head of the procession

The media had widely reported the so-called infighting and mutual criticism made at various Party conferences by the delegates. It is normal for delegates at CPI(M) conferences to criticise harshly any shortcoming or deviation on the part of any comrade in higher committees. The media was trying to consciously intervene in such inner-Party debates by publicly reporting bits of information they could muster and often distorting or exaggerating certain points. They predicted a tough fight in the election of the new state committee and secretary.

The media barons and those who pull their strings expected a head on split in the Party leading to its disruption. But the people, Party members at large and sympathisers decided otherwise. While there was some confusion foisted among them by the bourgeois media, vast majority placed their faith and confidence in the Party leadership. They asked the Party leadership to maintain Party unity at all costs. The striving of the media to isolate the CPI(M) from the people and discredit and disrupt the Party went against the wishes of the people. They rejected such media canards and rallied around the Party.

The unanimous adoption of the general secretary's report after discussions and re-election of the entire outgoing members of the state committee as also the new names officially proposed sent a message to one and all that the conference stood by the programme and policies put forward by the Party leadership.

The mass rally on the evening of February 22 was addressed by CPI(M) Polit Bureau members Prakash Karat, S Ramachandran Pillai, V S Achuthanandan, Sitaram Yechuri and Pinarayi Vijayan.

The conference adopted a number of resolutions on issues affecting various sections of people in the state other than the resolution on martyrs and the condolence resolution.

In spite of the months’ long strident media campaign to carry the Party along the road set up by them, the conference reiterated the earlier Party positions and declared in unmistakable terms the Party’s firm resolve to fight neo-liberal policies in various forms as also the machinations of obscurantists of all hues.  It supported the pro-people policies and measures of the UPA government at the same time giving strict warning that any move by it to implement anti-people policies would be resisted tooth and nail.

Attempts by the Muslim League to put impediments to making the conference a grand success were resisted by the people. Actually, such efforts had the opposite effect. It resulted in much more organised efforts by Party members to make the conference a success as also the support they could muster from the people at large. In spite of the most concerted moves to weaken and disrupt the Party unity, the Party has become stronger and more united after the Mallapuram conference. Naturally, this has weakened the confidence of the people in the media and vested interests which tried their best to prevent the Party from consolidating its victory in struggles it waged and the elections it contested during the last three years.