The fate that befell the earlier patch-up efforts does not inspire much confidence. Also, the latest formula bristles with contradictions.

For instance, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat has exhorted the Kerala CPI(M) leaders to maintain unity so that the party can ‘make significant advances’. Karat’s reference is to the Lok Sabha elections due in May next year. He has also made it clear that VS Achuthanandan will remain the leader of the opposition. In other words, VS will lead the party in the upcoming electoral battle. A proposition the official faction led by State party secretary Pinarayi Vijayan does not approve at all. Obviously, VS has been retained, rejecting the demand for his ouster, because he is the most popular leader in the party with proven capacity for getting votes.

One should have thought that the central leadership would, ipso facto, take steps to strengthen VS’s position so that he can do an effective job as the leader of the opposition. But what has it done? In an ill-advised move, the party has deprived him of the services of three aides on whom he was critically dependent! It is tantamount to asking the general to lead the battle unarmed!

This has been done obviously to placate the Vijayan-led faction which had demanded the ouster of the threesome for leaking party decisions to the media. It is a decision which will not make for unity. If anything, it will only exacerbate sectarianism.

Much depends now on who the party will appoint to replace the expelled VS aides. Wisdom demands that VS’s wishes should be respected in the matter. That is, he should be given aides with whom he is comfortable; not the staff who are hostile to him. It may be remembered that in the past, while he was the Chief Minister, his political secretary was changed and a person who had no love lost for VS was named as his successor.

True, the setting up of a six-member commission to look into the organization matters in the state CPI(M) is a victory of sorts for Achuthanandan. It also means that, hereafter, the Polit Buro will keep a closer watch on the activities of the state leadership. Among other things, the commission will look into a complaint made by the expelled VS aides that proceedings of meetings not attended by VS have also been leaked to the media. What is significant is that the commission has not been given a time frame.

There is a stream of thought which believes that the commission has been set up only to delay a decision on the retention of VS as leader of the opposition till the Lok Sabha elections. This section believes that once the LS polls are over, VS will be dumped, his utility having been outlived.

The setting up of the commission suits Achuthanandan,too. Firstly, it will enable him to remain the opposition leader. More important, if an adverse verdict in the Lavalin case comes before the Lok Sabha elections – a possibility which cannot be completely ruled out – then Vijayan will have to quit the secretary’s post. In that event, there could be a paradigm shift in CPI(M) politics to the advantage of VS.

Another point in VS’s favour is the support of the CPI(M)’s allies like the CPI and the RSP. Of course, both the CPI and the RSP have scrupulously avoided interfering in the VS issue, saying that it is an internal matter of the CPI(M). But their sympathies are clearly with VS. In fact, former CPI general secretary AB Bardhan is on record that he expects the CPI(M) leaders to take into account all factors before taking a decision on Achuthanandan. Kerala CPI secretary Panniyan Ravindran has been more categorical. VS is a leader of people and he would lead the LDF in the Lok Sabha elections, Ravindran declared the other day. Strictly, speaking it is not an internal matter of the CPI(M). After all, VS is leader of the opposition, not CPI(M) alone. Therefore, the allies should also have a say in the matter. It is good that the CPI has expressed its views without appearing to interfere in the CPI(M)’s internal matters.

Meanwhile, state-level meetings of the CPI(M) have started. Karat is in Kerala to brief the state secretariat and state committee on the PB and CC decisions on the Kerala affairs. The state committee, which had passed a resolution seeking removal of VS as leader of the opposition, will again discuss the matter as the PB had referred the matter back to it. The decision, to say the least, is strange. The state committee is unlikely to change the resolution on VS, given the level of hostility against VS and the brute majority Vijayan enjoys in it. It remains to be seen whether the central leaders including Karat and S Ramachandran Pillai will be able to persuade the state party leaders to give up their obsession with VS and focus on more important issues like preparing for the upcoming electoral battle. The million dollar question is also if the state leaders will heed the unity appeal made by the central leadership. (IPA Service)