Thiruvananthapuram: The Communist Party of India (CPI), the second largest partner in Kerala’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition government, is unhappy over some of the decisions taken by the government. The party is continuing with the alliance, but these decisions are making it impatient, CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran said.
Rajendran said he is not disappointed with the government, but also that it is too early to comment on the performance of individual departments because an internal assessment is still ongoing. However, “we can’t say we still have the speed with which we began”, he said.
The CPI has 19 seats, while alliance leader and chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPM, has 58 seats in the 140-member assembly.
Rajendran said he does not have a lot of hope of the government “setting everything right”—Vijayan’s campaign slogan that helped him sail to victory in the 2016 election—soon. There are several reasons, he said, including things that are not in control of the state government such as demonetisation, drought and price rise.
But then, “Are we fools to think that within nine months after the transfer of power from Oommen Chandy, this will become a paradise?” he asked. “I think everything cannot be made alright that soon.”
But the main criticism of CPI is not the slow pace but the “anti-Left tendencies” of the government, said Rajendran. He pointed to three recent incidents—the government’s battle in Kerala high court to prevent the disclosure of cabinet decisions under Right to Information Act (RTI), the use of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) against artists and activists, and police encounters against Maoists.
All three are violations of the stated policies of not only the CPI, but Communist parties across India, Rajendran said. “When the Left is in power, the government cannot go on by taking anti-Left stances. Only in two states, Kerala and Tripura, the Left is in power. In other states, the Left workers are in constant struggle and are protesting against anti-Left policies. If Kerala fails to uphold the virtues of the Left, we will be failing their hands,” he said.
When asked why the party is still part of the alliance if the government is turning anti-Left, Rajendran said the CPI realises that Left unity is the need of the hour. “We have taken a political resolution to stick together. Unless that decision is changed, we will continue to raise constructive criticism against anti-Left tendencies of this government,” he said.
The two Left parties have been fighting it out in public in Kerala for some time, leading even to jokes that the CPI and CPM veteran V.S. Achuthanandan, who has frosty ties with Vijayan, have become the real opposition for the LDF government in Kerala.
“I consider these as signals of CPI trying to assert itself over CPM,” said N.P. Rajendran, veteran journalist and political analyst. “For long, CPM was considered to be the major communist party. Now, CPI thinks the time is right to assert itself and project itself as the party that follows true communist ideals.”
Rajendran said he is forced to make his criticisms public because the differences are not seriously discussed within the coalition. “I can’t blame the LDF convener, he is a poor man (Vaikom Viswan). The blame rests with the government,” he said.
Besides, he says the CPI has “not entered into an alliance after signing an agreement that we (CPI) will agree to all decisions of CPM.”
“If the issues we are raising are discussed within the coalition, we will raise it there. If they (CPM) decides to go ahead (like in the case of RTI law) without discussing it in the coalition, then we are forced to raise criticism in the public,” he said.
Another political analyst and columnist, B.R.P. Bhaskar, said it puzzles him why the CPI is so much more outspoken than it used to be. “But I consider it as a positive development,” said Bhaskar, “since in the absence of any real opposition from Congress, some corrective force within the LDF is of some help.”
