Sitaram Yechury was elected the CPM’s fifth general secretary at the party’s 21st congress in Visakhapatnam on Sunday amidst expectation at a point of considerable turmoil in this communist formation, and when the Left movement in the country finds itself at its “lowest ebb”, to quote Mr Yechury himself.
While preserving his party’s core ideological principles, it will be expected that the just elected general secretary will seek to restore his party’s image and influence in the country and expand its activities to include a working association with parties, including the Congress, that proclaim allegiance to the spirit of “secularism” in posing a challenge to the BJP-led ruling dispensation at a political level and at the level of ideas.
This may be needed for the CPM’s own revitalisation if the party seeks to emerge from the quicksand of circuitous and sterile left-wing polemics and policies which had caused the party’s stock to plummet over the years. The unanimous election of Mr Yechury, 62, hides a deep factional schism in the party leadership which had led to a suppressed tussle for the position of general secretary. Warring on this plane typically conceals deep differences in the matter of political strategies to be pursued, and in the final analysis on the nature of the understanding of Indian society, culture and Indian capitalism.
S.R. Pillai, 10 years Mr Yechury’s senior and his colleague in the politburo, was the chosen instrument of his Kerala-based faction to confront the new contours of innovative politics seeking to emerge in the CPM. At the last minute, however, this challenge had to be dropped in light of the prevailing balance of forces in the party to ensure Mr Yechury’s unanimous election.
It is to be seen if a dormant challenge continues to persist and will pose questions to Mr Yechury’s leadership later, especially in Kerala, which remains a state where the CPM retains considerable influence, unlike West Bengal where its bastion was stormed and the party finds itself under siege from the ruling Trinamul Congress as well as the BJP.
Naturally, for the new general secretary, finding the party’s footing in West Bengal will be his first charge. He may find this is inextricably bound up with the task of advancing the politics of secularism in the face of a determined BJP.
Mr Yechury’s predecessor, Prakash Karat, had proved to be more dogmatic than many may have hoped — a common enough affliction on the Left. Many have overlooked the fact that rising above dogma is not always to be equated with falling prey to short-term expediency. If Mr Yechury as well as Mr Karat are able to appreciate this in unison, they will be benefiting their party as well as the left, democratic and secular pole.
