Sitaram Yechury has won the ideological tussle inside the CPI(M). The three-day-long Central Committee meeting on Wednesday accommodated in its Draft Resolution Yechury’s pitch for the ‘political line’ to be adopted in the coming years. Yechury had also stressed for making alliances with non-left parties to counter the surging BJP and a thorough analysis of the implementation of party line during general secretary Prakash Karat’s period.
Accommodating the points challenging the official Draft Resolution is a rare event in the history of Communist parties. It also assumes significance since Yechuy’s demands were directed at Karat too. Due to Yechury’s objections, the party’s Central Committee meeting held in October could not ratify the Draft Resolution on the ‘political line’ to be adopted.
The Central Committee now has decided to re-draft the resolution brought by the official faction. The Central Committee-approved resolution in the Hyderabad meeting will be debated at all levels of the party. It will be approved in the forthcoming ‘Party Congress’ in April in Vishakhapatnam.
Karat had advocated for a puritan left-based alliances against the surge of BJP and Sangh Parivar in the coming years. However, the Yechury-led faction argued for a practical political line in making alliances with major Opposition parties like Congress and other anti-Sangh Parivar parties.
The ideological tussle went on a personal level too, when Yechury argued for a thorough analysis of party’s policies implemented in the past 10 years, a period when Karat has been at the helm. Earlier, the official faction had moved a Draft Resolution advocating the analysis of party’s tactical and political lines during the past 25 years.
The Yechury faction said the problem was not with the policies or tactical liens adopted but with the way in which they were implemented. However, unlike other political parties, entire leadership of CPI(M) kept tightlipped on the developments and stuck to the official Press release. “The Central Committee has taken up the discussion on the Draft Political Resolution for the 21st Congress of the party. The draft was presented by general secretary Prakash Karat in the evening session on January 19. After the discussions are completed, the Draft Resolution is expected to be adopted on January 21.
“The Draft Resolution states that with the assumption of power by the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, the stage is set for a rightwing offensive comprising an aggressive pursuit of neo-liberal policies and a full scale attempt by the RSS-led Hindutva forces to advance their communal agenda. Such a situation presages the threat of growing authoritarianism. The Draft Resolution sets out the course of action that the party must undertake to fight this twin offensive,” said the party communiqué.