No parallel party, CPM ticks off VS Achuthanandan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM State secretariat has warned Opposition leader V S Achuthanandan, “the senior-most party leader”, that it will not brook any move by him to lead a parallel party outfit in the state.

The secretariat asked him to comply with collective decisions of the State committee and desist from making public statements that were at variance with the party stand.

In a four-page statement, the secretariat traced the recent history of Mr Achuthanandan’s sectarian deviations and the party apex committee’s efforts to discipline him, even by dropping him from the politburo.

The secretariat assessed that Mr Achuthanandan had sought to create an impression that he was working in tandem with the new central leadership and trying to realign the LDF.

“We are trying to pursue ...”, the secretariat resolution quotes and asks him, “Who is this ‘we’. It ticks him off against any “parallel” misadventure.

But the secretariat resolution cites repeatedly Mr Achuthanandan’s practice of hurling criticisms and allegations against the party, helping to deflect the focus from the UDF crisis and giving the rightwing media an occasion to celebrate.  

The resolution points out that there was nothing new in issues being raised again by Mr Achuthanandan because they had been considered and disposed of by the top committees of the party and the past five party congresses.

However, Mr Achuthanandan had said that he stood by his recent statements against the politburo and that perhaps the politburo had not gauged his statements correctly.

The resolution said this was a challenge and disrespect to the politburo and the secretariat was constrained to issue the clarification.

This was not first time Mr Achuthanandan defamed the party through his open statements and he had done so often when the UDF used to be at its worst. The situation was no different now, when the UDF faced the worst crisis, racked by “ministerial graft and internal rifts”.

The party central committee had never approved his compliant of repression of different opinions and organizational tendency to snuff out openness in the State unit.

Mr Achuthanandan, through his repeated statements, “makes it clear that he is not bound by organizational principles to correct his lapses”, which was the minimum expected of a disciplined party worker, the resolution said.