Is 90 years the most appropriate age to retire from active politics for a personIJ Rumours are rife that VS Achuthanandan may relinquish all party positions and even the post of Kerala Assembly’s Opposition leader by October 20, the day he turns 90, but even if he does it, it will be after making some disclosures that might keep his foes in the party in shock for a long time.
Achuthanandan, a member of the Central committee of the CPI(M), is currently going through the worst phase in his life in the party with a Politburo commission collecting evidences for his alleged anti-party activities which, according to observers, may end in his expulsion or the worst possible disciplinary action against him.
As per the rumours, the proletarian leader who had started his life of a communist when he was 14 may not want to remain active anymore in the party after the series of humiliations he had to pocket in his struggle to “save” the organisation from slipping into right-wing tendencies in the hands of the neo-liberalists led by State Secretary Pinarayi Vijayan.
The five-member “PB Inquisition” is currently examining the veracity of a resolution the neo-liberalist State leadership had passed demanding strong action against him. VS-loyalists are of the opinion that the neo-liberalists might not press for his removal as Opposition leader at this juncture but they will “try to reduce him to the position of a non-entity” in the party.
“Jyoti Basu had retired from active PB role when he was 94. But he had not gone into retirement in disgrace. The State leadership perhaps wants is a disgraceful departure for VS. But he himself is a master tactician who has surprised his enemies with unpredictable moves,” said a former CPI(M) theorist known for his pro-Achuthanandan stand.
The commission is presently collecting evidence to decide on the action to be taken against Achuthanandan who, according to the official leadership, has committed unpardonable wrongs by trying to keep Pinarayi in the shadow of suspicion with his charges over the Rs 374.5-crore SNC lavalin corruption case in which he is seventh accused.
In what many VS-watchers call a possible prelude to the “explosion” he is preparing to “initiate” in the party before leaving it, Achuthanandan the other day wrote a 20-page letter to the commission saying that the State leadership was smothering dissents and were on a campaign of annihilating those who pointed out its ideological deviations.
Achuthanandan contended that he was being labeled as an “agent” for pointing out the distancing of the leadership from leftist ideology and showing affinity to right wing tendencies. He charged the leadership with calling real communists who stood firm in leftist ideology “betrayers” when it had no problem with those who had left the party to join the Congress.
The official neo-liberalist leadership may consider any attempt of Achuthanandan to retire from active politics himself as a welcome one but sources in that camp secretly admit that such a development might affect the prospects of the CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF in the coming lok Sabha election.
Despite the fact that Achuthanandan is continuing as Opposition leader, he has virtually no say in the affairs of the party as his traditionalist group in the party has virtually been wiped out. The expulsion of three of his personal aides some months ago had effectively clipped his wings and served as a warning to him.