Old guard vs new

The suspension of Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and the secretary of the CPI(M) state committee, Pinarayi Vijayan, from the party's politburo conveys a strong and unequivocal message to everyone in the party that no indiscipline will be tolerated. In the weeks preceding their suspension last Saturday, Mr Achuthanandan and Mr Vijayan had been engaged in an open war of words. Each used the media to level charges against the other. The problems had begun much earlier though, going back to the time of picking the party's candidates to fight the assembly elections in 2006. Mr Vijayan came out with a list that did not include Mr Achuthanandan as one of the candidates in spite of the view, widely held among all political parties, that he was one of the tallest and most popular CPI(M) leaders in Kerala. There was surprise and widespread consternation that the CPI(M) would lose a lot of its fire power without Mr Achuthanandan spearheading the electoral battle. The politburo had to intervene and persuade Mr Vijayan to make the necessary modifications in the list. In the event, the return of Mr Achuthanandan as a candidate bolstered the party's campaign and helped it emerge victorious at the hustings. The problems between the two leaders, however, did not get sorted out. Factional pulls and pressures intensified and began manifesting themselves in statements to the media. In the end, it would seem, there was no option for the party general secretary, Prakash Karat, to do anything other than suspending both from the politburo""an unprecedented step.

The question is: Will Mr Karat's action (which has no doubt enhanced his image within the party as a strong and decisive leader) stem indiscipline within the party? Already, there are reports that Mr Vijayan has taken some disciplinary action against a few of Mr Achuthanandan's supporters in the state. Retaliatory action may soon follow from the chief minister. What happens then? And what action did the politburo contemplate when the West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, was under attack from his ministerial colleague, Subhash Chakrabarty? True, there was no exchange of words between the two leaders in the media. But the spectacle of a state chief minister being embarrassed by the reported statements of his ministerial colleague was hardly edifying.

In other words, indiscipline in the party has deeper roots. Note that two of the oldest members of the politburo (Jyoti Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjeet) did not attend the meeting where the decision to suspend the two Kerala leaders was taken. Mr Achuthanandan, who is perceived to be the politburo's real target of attack, is 84 years old, senior to Mr Vijayan by as many as 21 years. The CPI(M) Congress is due to meet in 2008 when the membership of the politburo will be overhauled, presumably to induct younger people. The internal tussle will only grow as the fight for greater control of the party will intensify between the old guard and younger leaders, represented by the likes of Mr Karat and Sitaram Yechury. To view in the recent politburo action only the decisiveness of the current CPI(M) leadership would therefore be naive. The underlying issue is whether the old guard will make way quietly for a new leadership in the party.