Party 'tutorials' keep Kerala CPM absorbed
The edifice AKG centre here, the headquarters of the state CPM unit, is uncharacteristically calm and quiet for the next four days. The usual scene of dawn to dusk steady stream of leaders bearing the baggage of ideology and authority and obedient and awe-struck workers is not seen. Rather than a busy party office of the largest political entity in the state, it wears the look of a lecture hall discussing tough subjects.
Yes, serious lecturing is going on there. As decided at the Kozhikode party congress six months back, senior politburo members namely S Ramachandran Pillai, Sitaram Yechuri and Brinda Karat are taking (party) classes for the state leaders. Who-is-who in the party in the state including state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and other politburo members Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and M A Baby, and former finance minister and economist Thomas Isaac are front-benchers in the class and listening with rapt attention.
Of course, conspicuously absent is veteran party leader V S Achuthanandan. The ostensible reason for exempting VS, the only living party founder leader, is his senior citizenship status. But what is given in the corridors of the AKG centre is a different reason.
What would be the use? He would have his own Marxist-Leninist view on each issue. If the theories taught in the party class did not match his views, he would go on in public against it and the party would be at the receiving end, confided a senior party leader.
