Instead of coming up with a comprehensive blueprint for meeting the awesome challenges confronting the party, CPI(M) state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan, who demitted office after being its helmsman for 16 years, making way for Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, used the occasion to subject his bete noire, V. S. Achuthanandan to a savage verbal onslaught - ably assisted by hand-picked delegates - not witnessed in the annals of the party’s history.

A brief recapitulation of the sequence of events that climaxed in a walkout by VS Achuthanandan is in order to put things in perspective. The proximate cause of Vijayan’s anger was the ‘leakage’ of a letter VS wrote to the Politburo seeking early implementation of his demands. The letter saw a furious Vijayan getting the State secretariat to pass a resolution blasting Achuthanandan and personally releasing it at a press conference. By leaking the letter, VS had indulged in grave indiscipline, crowed Vijayan, who then went on to blame all the problems faced by the party on VS. The resolution accused Achuthanandan of harbouring an anti-party mindset! The intensity of Vijayan’s anger can be gauged from the fact that the working report presented at the conference devoted an astounding 56 pages for VS-bashing! No other CPM leader has been the victim of such venomous vitriol from his own party secretary.

The unprecedentedly angry outburst proved the proverbial last straw for VS, who walked out of the conference in a huff, saying ‘enough is enough’. The VS walkout sent the conference and the party leaders into a tizzy, triggering wild speculations about the veteran’s imminent exit from the party.

VS laid down preconditions for his return to the conference: the resolution against him should be withdrawn, the two accused in the TP Chandrashekharan murder case should be expelled from the party and he should continue to be a member of the State Committee.

Karat refused to concede the demands and insisted on VS returning to the conference first. The PB and the Central Committee will discuss his demands and take a decision at a later stage. The only concession was a freeze on a few paragraphs of the resolution passed by the state secretariat against VS, who has been kept out of the State Committee. But one seat has been kept vacant in expectation of VS’s possible return in the days ahead!

In a press release on Monday, VS, who left Alappuzha for the state capital the same day, ruled out his return to the conference. His reason: the resolution which dubbed him as a renegade has not been withdrawn. Therefore, VS wrote to Karat expressing his ‘helplessness’ to return to the conference.

Venerable VS certainly did not deserve to be subjected to such shocking humiliation. After all, they opine, VS is first a human being and then only a communist. And no human being could have endured such highly personal criticism from the Vijayan loyalists, at times bordering on abuse, with equanimity. Any person with a modicum of self-respect would have reacted in the manner in which VS did, it is being pointed out.

That Vijayan vent his spleen against VS was no surprise. But the reaction of the central leaders was as surprising as it was shocking. The central leaders, - except Yechury - blamed only VS, totally ignoring the grave provocation and violation of party norms on the part of Vijayan. Not a word of disapproval came from Karat. Failure to stop the outpouring of vicious vitriol against VS was nothing but an abdication of central responsibility but also an abetment to Vijayan’s lamentable conduct, VS aides argue. Here again, Yechury redeemed himself. He posed a pertinent question: If VS was a renegade, why was he asked the hoist the flag at the start of the conference? There was no answer from the Vijayan camp!

Vijayan aides are making much of the fact that the condemnation of VS conduct at the conference was total. Hardly surprising. After all, the conference delegates were chosen Vijayan loyalists. Pro-VS leaders had been systematically kept out. No wonder the delegates, almost without exception, turned a scathing tongue against CPI(M) patriarch. News it would have been had they refused to lash out at VS!

That the last word on the VS-Vijayan spat has not been said is clear from the continued hounding of the former by the latter. Exit from the secretary’s post has not assuaged Vijayan’s anger against VS. That much is clear from the verbal volleys he continues to direct at Achuthanandan. The rantings convey a message to his successor Kodiyeri Balakrishnan: don’t be soft on the veteran. Be unrelentingly tough against him. It was also a crude attempt to influence Kodiyeri’s approach vis-à-vis VS.

The new State CPI(M) secretary, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has his task cut out. An essential prerequisite for a good start to Kodiyeri’s innings is the discarding of the pernicious Pinarayi legacy and replacing it with a humane and inclusivist approach. Of course, Kodiyeri has the right credentials for the difficult job. He is amiable, accessible and accommodative unlike his prickly predecessor. Kodiyeri is a smiling communist with a pleasant persona. In other words, he is every inch what Pinarayi is not. And Balakrishnan has begun well by stating that VS would be accorded all respect he is entitled to. Kodiyeri is keen on a good chemistry with VS as that is essential for the success of his future plans which include, among other things, intensification of the battle against corruption inside and outside the State Assembly. The CPI(M)’s intent to turn the heat on the Oommen Chandy-led UDF Government makes it imperative for Kodiyeri to take VS along with him. He also has a tough challenge in preparing the party to meet the electoral battles ahead: the local bodies elections in October and the assembly elections in May next year. That explains his conscious effort to be nice to VS, who will stay as the leader of the opposition.

The CPI(M) is truly at the crossroads. It is a moment of truth for the party, which must shed the Stalinist orthodoxy and embrace a humane and inclusivist policy to meet the awesome challenges of surviving in the 21st century. Failure to mend its ways will see the fate that befell the CPI(M) in West Bengal overtake it in Kerala, its most important unit in the country, as well. The CPI(M) has been fore-warned. Will it see the writing on the wall and reinvent itself? (IPA Service)