THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM national leadership has delivered a strong indictment of the party’s Kerala leadership, holding it responsible for failing to anticipate and effectively respond to controversies arising from its decisions. The party leadership said these failures contributed to the state unit’s huge setback in the assembly elections.
The review report adopted by the Central Committee (CC), which was presented at the state secretariat meeting on Wednesday, asked the Kerala unit to ‘own up’ its failures.
The CC observed that “the top leadership of the state committee failed to assess the adverse impact of its decisions and react promptly to address the issues. Therefore, the responsibility for the choice of candidates in certain constituencies and the lack of adequate representation for women, minorities and youth cannot be placed on the district committees alone”. “The state leadership should own up this responsibility,” it said.
The CC also criticised the state leadership for ignoring its directive to initiate disciplinary action against Pathanamthitta district committee member and former Travancore Devaswom Board president A Padmakumar, following his arrest in the Sabarimala temple gold theft case.
The state leadership had argued that Padmakumar’s imprisonment made it difficult to initiate disciplinary proceedings after seeking his explanation, admitting that the delay was a lapse on its part.
Rejecting the explanation, the central committee said that immediately after the arrest of Padmakumar, the party’s national leadership had asked the state unit to take disciplinary action, but no action was taken.
Central committee critical of Ayyappa meet
“Timely disciplinary action could have minimised some damage,” the report noted.The state leadership also acknowledged lapses in candidate selection, particularly in Kannur district, stating that it fuelled allegations of nepotism and bias and undermined the selection process. Though the state committee admitted lapses while approving the selection of candidates in Payyannur and Taliparamba, the CC categorically stated that the state leadership must own responsibility for those decisions.
The report further said the party’s failure to mount a strong political campaign allowed the Congress to push its allegation of a secret understanding between the CPM and the BJP. It said the campaign by the Jamaat-e-Islami and the Muslim League alienated a section of minority voters from the LDF.
The CC was equally critical of the Global Ayyappa Sangamam. While the state leadership admitted the event could have been avoided, the central leadership said “reading out a message of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, an avowed Hindutva fanatic, by a minister who is also a member of the state secretariat was a major embarrassment to the party’s secular image and adversely affected our election campaign. Such an act sent the wrong message to the people and created the impression that the party was soft on Hindutva communal forces.”
The state unit also admitted that its response to SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan’s anti-Muslim remarks was inadequate and that statements made by some CPM leaders further alienated the Muslim community.
“Taken together, these mistakes created the impression that our party was compromising in its fight against communalism,” the report said.