For a party ideologically opposed to a lavish lifestyle, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) has declared an unprecedented war on comrades who have fallen in love with Mammon.
Faced with make-or-break elections in its long-time citadel West Bengal next year, the CPI-M has admitted that corruption has seeped into its rank and file in a manner never seen before. A meeting of the party’s central committee discussed this month the strict do’s and don’ts for its 1.01 million members. Officially, the party has launched what it calls a “rectification campaign” against lavish lifestyles, self-centred behaviour, groupism and, above all, growing corruption. CPI(M) office-bearers and senior leaders have been told to seek permission before buying a vehicle or house. It has also decided not to permit anyone contest elections to any parliamentary body more than three times.
While party faithful say the decision is overdue and welcome, critics say that the CPI(M) — among the last of Stalinist parties in the world — will fail to overcome what has become a cancer. “There are wrong tendencies like corruption and lavish lifestyle among party members and leaders,” a party leader admitted to IANS but not wishing to be identified. “This is the contribution of globalisation.” He said the party will discuss the issue in a free and frank manner across all its units.
Not everyone is as enthusiastic. One party leader in Kerala has already quit in disgust. T.P. Mohammed Kutty, who was a district committee member in Kerala’s Muslim-majority region Malappuram, said it would be very difficult for the party to make a comeback to its proletarian moorings. “The top and middle-level leaders are interested only in being connected with the affluent, people who were once seen as class enemies,” Mr Kutty said when he left the party. Although its influence is limited to a handful of states, the CPI(M) has ruled West Bengal continuously since 1977. It has repeatedly taken power in Kerala and Tripura. In 2004, the party headed a 60-MP bloc that propped up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Congress-led government, giving its members access to the corridors of power.
Party sources say all this has contributed to the rot within. While appreciating the CPI(M)’s crackdown, party member Sajoy George admits that it won’t be an easy affair. “Rectification is not as easy as the central committee thinks since the CPI(M) has become leader-centric rather than people-centric,” he said. Noted Left analyst N.P. Chekutty said the rectification campaign had already run into trouble. “In Kerala, discussions have only shown how bad things are,” the founder news director of the CPI(M)-controlled Kairali TV channel said.
—IANS