Troubled legacy: A resolution adopted in 2003 threatens to plunge the CPI(M) into a crisis

A resolution adopted by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2003 that paved the way for its electoral alliance with the Congress is threatening to spark a crisis in the party, already divided between two warring factions.

While the faction headed by General Secretary Sitaram Yechury is seeking to use the resolution to realign with “secular forces” against the Bharatiya Janata Party, the rival faction of former chief Prakash Karat holds the resolution singularly responsible for the decline of the party over the last decade.

Adopted in November 2003, the resolution jettisoned the CPI(M)’s traditional position holding the Congress politically untouchable, allowing it to formally join the grand old party’s alliance with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti against the BJP-Telugu Desham Party combine for the Andhra Pradesh Assembly election of 2004.

The resolution read:

“The CPI(M) in Andhra Pradesh will work for the defeat of the TDP-BJP alliance in the forthcoming assembly elections. For this, the Andhra Pradesh State Committee will contest only in seats where we have an effective presence. We appeal to all secular and democratic forces to support our candidates just as we will be extending support to the candidates of the left and secular parties who can defeat the TDP-BJP in areas where we are not contesting.”  

Significantly departing from tradition, the resolution did not try to make a distinction between the Congress and other secular parties. Indeed, the scope of the resolution was so broad it could not be limited to Andhra Pradesh, eventually laying the ground for the CPI(M) to join the Congress-led “secular platform” for the 2004 general election.

Karat, incidentally, had opposed the resolution but the backing of Harkishan Singh Surjeet, then general secretary, as well as senior politburo members Jyoti Basu and Yechury carried it through.

“Originally, Jyoti Basu was to move that resolution in the central committee’s meeting of November 2003,” a senior CPI(M) leader recounted. “But Surjeet fell ill and could not attend the meeting. So, Basu had to chair the meeting and on his instruction Yechury moved the resolution. Karat opposed the shift in the party line, but he could not prevent it as the majority of the central committee was in favour of the resolution.”

Bone of contention

It has remained a sore point, though. Since Karat was made general secretary in 2005, his camp has unsuccessfully tried, on at least five occasions, to get the party to declare that the resolution had harmed it. Now, the resolution is at the centre of the differences over the West Bengal CPI(M)’s demand to ally with the Congress for the 2019 election.

So contentious is the resolution, in fact, it is the only one missing from the “Documents” section on the party’s website. Asked why, Yechury expressed shock. “It’s strange,” he replied. “There is no reason it should not be there at a time when preparations for the next Party Congress have begun and party members and leaders might be visiting the website to refer to party documents. I am travelling in Andhra Pradesh and shall look into it once I reach Delhi.”

The 22nd Party Congress is expected to be held in Hyderabad in April 2018.

A politburo member aligned with Karat was no less surprised. “It might have happened by mistake,” he said when asked about the missing document. “I will take it up with Comrade Brinda Karat who is responsible for the website and the social media initiatives of the party.”

The absence of the resolution which opened the door for the CPI(M) to ally with Congress over a decade ago might not be part of a design to prevent it from being widely discussed ahead of the Party Congress. But the rallying of the majority of politburo against any alliance with the Congress for the 2019 general election makes the omission look conspicuous.

At a politburo meeting last week, nine of its 16 members backed Karat’s position that there should be no political understanding with the Congress to defeat the BJP. The five members who backed Yechury’s line in favour of such an alliance are all from West Bengal.

The leaders of the Yechury camp say they will not accept under any condition the phrase “no political understanding with the Congress” in the draft political resolution that would be presented for discussion at the Party Congress.

Leaders close to Karat say it would be impossible for the party to return to its “original purist line” if the 2003 resolution is given another go.

A final attempt to thrash out a consensus is likely to be made at the three-day meeting of the Central Committee in Kolkata in the third week of January.