HYDERABAD: The CPM organisational report to be tabled at the 22nd party congress in the coming days contains major criticism against its West Bengal unit. The weakening of the mass base has found prominent mention in the report.
The report, excerpts of which were seen by 'Express', is highly critical of the Bengal unit. The tactics adopted during the 2016 Assembly polls - an electoral understanding with the Congress - are not in consonance with the political tactical line of the 21st party congress, says the re port.
The proposal from the Bengal unit was discussed and rejected by the politburo and the central committee. Despite this, there were tacit seat adjustments and a joint campaign with the Congress, it says. The organisational report that reviewed and assessed the party's performance in the past three years expresses severe concerns over the loss of its mass base. "The organisational tasks set out by the Kolkata plenum should be fully implemented. Only a few state committees have taken serious efforts to implement the organisational decisions taken at the plenum. Even in those states, they are in process of implementing," says the report. Six months after the party congress, all state committees should review implementation of the decisions taken at the state plenum and extended meetings, it says.
The organisational report calls for all states to focus their energy on building a strong CPM with a mass base. The party is facing a difficult situation after the setbacks in Bengal and recently in Tripura. The reactionary forces are concentrating their attacks against the party. These challenges can be met only by strengthening the party's links with the masses, streamlining the party organisation with quality membership and building a strong communist party throughout the country, says the report. The report mentions the need to improve the level of cohesion among politburo members at the central level. Mutual confidence among members should be developed. For this, when issues crop up, they should be discussed immediately and resolved and not allowed to linger.
There is a serious problem of leakage of inner-party discussions and briefings to the media. Politburo member B V Raghavulu will inquire into the matter, it says. The organisational report asks the politburo members not to indulge in loose talk.
This would apply to secretariat members also, says the report.
Box 1
Valuable lessons
Learn lessons from past experiences, warns the CPM's organisational report.
Referring to the political situation just
before the 22nd party congress, the report says two of the three strong bases of the
party were constantly subject to
attacks by class enemies. "We have to draw proper lessons from such experiences and
implement necessary organisational
remedies to defend the party," it says. The report also talks about why the central
committee in July 2017 took a
decision not to accept the West Bengal state committee's proposal to renominate
general secretary Sitaram Yechury for
a third Rajya Sabha term.
Box 2
Social media impact
The organisational report is of the view that the party has made significant
improvements on the social media front
after the 21st party congress. During the 2015 party congress, the number of Twitter
followers was just around 6,000
and Facebook had around 60,000 likes. During the plenum, it increased. The numbers
now stand at 1,71,000 for Twitter
and 3,40,000 for Facebook. The efforts on social media have improved significantly
as the coordination is better
streamlined, the report observes. The highly effective social media campaigns have
also been mentioned in detail like
the campaign against the "RSS terror unleashed in Kerala". This has had good impact,
assessed the report. Other
campaigns on Tripura and Kisan Long March also gain mention in the report.
Box 3
Lack of cohesion
The report points out the differences that cropped up on the political line adopted
at the congress and its
implementation among the politburo members, including the general secretary. This
adversely affected the cohesion
among the politburo members, the report says, adding "this also affected political
and organisational interventions,
which were required to meet the developing situation". This particular observation
could lead to major directional
changes in the coming days. A delegate from Himachal Pradesh reportedly wanted to
know who gave the general secretary
the right to sabotage decisions taken at the 2015 congress. This led to the whole
debate over the purported alliance
with the Congress, said party sources.