In an attempt at self-criticism, the CPM Secretariat which met here on Friday observed that the advertisement department of the party mouthpiece ‘Deshabhimani’ had failed to understand the real intentions of Soorya group owner V M Radhakrishnan in issuing a print advertisement extending greetings to the party plenum on its valedictory day.
“The owner of the Soorya group of companies had stated later that he had certain intentions in releasing an ad for ‘Deshabhimani’ on that particular day. But the advertisement department could not realise his real intentions,” the statement from the CPM secretariat said. The statement said the party had not collected any fund from V M Radhakrishnan for the conduct of the Plenum. “He must have dragged the party into a controversy by issuing the ad as the party had not approached him for any ad,” the statement said. Speaking at the Secretariat meet, party state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan was critical of the lapses on part of ‘Deshabhimani’. However, he did not criticise E P Jayarajan, the general manager of the daily. The Secretariat statement said the “rightwing media” took it as a powerful weapon to attack the party which earned accolades for the conduct of the Plenum. It pointed out that when the owner of Soorya group landed in trouble earlier, there had been no criticism against Deshabhimani for taking advertisements from his company. The secretariat also congratulated the Palakkad district committee and party cadre for the manner in which they mobilised funds for the Plenum. Every member of the party paid `100 each to the fund. They also raised funds by distributing coupons, each of them valued at `25, to ordinary people.
The Secretariat observed that the reception committee had done a great job in organizing the Plenum.