TRIPURA

Measures for Qualitative Upgradation of Party Members

Haripada Das

AN extended Tripura state committee meeting of the CPI(M) has decided to take certain steps for activating all its members and enhancing their consciousness, while maintaining the class character of the party. These decisions of the meeting, held at Panchayat Raj Training Institute Arundhatinagar on January 22-23 were conveyed by CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar in a press conference on January 24. State secretariat member Gautam Das was also present in the press meet.

Dhar informed the media that, apart from the state committee members, secretariat members of the divisional committees were also invited to the meeting. In total, 225 comrades including 17 women attended the meeting. At the outset the meeting paid high tribute to Comrade Jyoti Bose and observed one minutes silence in respect of his memory.

While briefing about the meeting, Dhar informed that its main agenda was to conduct a mid-term review of the organisational decisions taken by the 19th state conference as well as in the 19th party congress in 2008, and to work out the modalities for implementation of the Central Committee�s rectification document in the state. A written report was placed before the state committee, on which 26 delegates made their observations and raised some valuable issues. Summing up the decisions, Bijan Dhar said a new situation has emerged in the backdrop of setback to the Left parties in the last Lok Sabha elections. Amid the unprecedented price rise, PDS dismantling, unemployment, growing farmers� suicide etc, the Congress thought it is high time to attack the Left parties and the three Left ruled states. It lent tacit support to the series of inhuman killings and attacks on the innocent CPI(M) supporters by the Maoist-Trinamul combine in West Bengal. Cohorts of the Congress and BJP are not idle in Kerala, Tripura Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh either. Those who are dreaming of defeating the Left Front in the 2011 assembly elections in West Bengal, would certainly be frustrated. Rather the Congress itself is getting alienated from the people for its anti-people neo-liberalisation policies, Bijan Dhar asserted, adding that the CPI(M) would build up extensive and stronger mass movements against the anti-people steps of the Congress government. Dhar also urged the party units to make all-out preparations for ensuring the Left victory in the coming TTAADC elections.

In his address to the extended state committee, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat explained the new political situation following the return of UPA government. As the CPI(M) stands firmly against pro-imperialist liberalisation, plots are being hatched to cripple the Left parties, particularly the CPI(M) throughout the country, especially in West Bengal, its strongest base. Prices are soaring high, taking things getting out of the common people�s reach. PDS is on the verge of liquidation. The yardstick for identifying the BPL families is irrational. The centre had decided to distribute rice through PDS at higher than the open market price. The plight of the peasantry has deteriorated due to the Indo-ASIAN treaty. Instead of addressing these problems, the Congress-led government is keen to deepen the strategic alliance with the USA and to sell off the profitable public sector units to benefit the multinationals. The Left parties will organise a huge rally on March 12 to translate the people�s anger into a tremendous mass movement, which is the only way to rebuff the government�s anti-people policies, Karat concluded.

Polit Bureau member and Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar asserted that rectification is not a ceremonial thing in a Communist Party; rather it is to be practised regularly as an inseparable part of the movement. We must prove in practice Comrade Stalin�s assertion that �Communists are of different genre.� This should be reflected in our work, behaviour, lifestyle and dealing with others, Sarkar advised. To build a mass revolutionary party, party members must have high conviction in Marxist-Leninist ideology, uphold communist values and at the same time remain in the midst of mass and class struggles. He suggested qualitative enrichment of the party members to overcome the alien influences that are being manifested everyday in the present day society. Sarkar advised that every party member must stick to democratic centralism, the basic principle of party organisation which helps keep the party united.