ALAPPUZHA:The internecine battle between two CPM heavyweights - state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan and party veteran V S Achuthanandan - took on the characteristics of a final showdown on the eve of the start of the state conference of the party here with the former accusing the latter of anti-party mindset.
The words used by Pinarayi Vijayan, describing his bete noire as an anti-party activist, dropped enough hints that the party is up against a wall and disciplinary action against Achuthanandan was unavoidable. The indictment, made on his home turf Alappuzha, elicited an equally terse response from the unrelenting VS, who referred to Pinarayi in third person and stated that he was rejecting the remarks against him with the “contempt they deserve”.
To anyone keenly watching political developments in the CPM, there is no denial that the party has reached a point of no return when it comes to the question of taking disciplinary action against VS. The apparatchiks of the official faction should have known by now that VS, who has never shied away from political battles in his seven decades of public life, cannot be cowed by mere threats. A cadre party like CPM cannot move forward for long without acting against VS. But VS being a Central Committee member, a decision on any sort of disciplinary action could only come from the higher body.
Pinarayi Vijayan’s media conference, held immediately after the state secretariat meet at Kalarkode in Alappuzha, in which he read out the resolution adopted against VS, was clear indication that talons are now out. The words chosen by the state secretary and the vitriol with which they were delivered, in his last official press conference as state secretary, gave enough indications regarding the future course.
“The state committee and the state secretariat have already unanimously rejected the letter by him criticising the style of functioning of the party. It was improper act on part of VS to rake up the issue again,” Pinarayi said, commenting on a document, purportedly leaked by VS, published in a leading Malayalam daily on February 18.
Pinarayi, who accused VS of continuing with his his anti-party style of functioning, reminded that the party was forced to take disciplinary action against him, by dropping him from the politburo, for similar offences in July 2009.
“The claim VS has been raising is that his rift with the leadership was political and ideological. But it is baseless. The central committee cannot accept the view that the party is making political deviations and suppressing divergent views in a fascist manner. The allegations have factional motives,” Pinarayi said quoting from the observations made by the central committee while taking disciplinary action against Achuthanandan in July 2012. But Achuthanandan’s open rejection of Pinarayi’s statements and the resolution moved by the state secretariat shows that he would no let go without a fight. He has made it clear that the letter was given to the party’s politburo as an alternative to the organisational report and he would await a response from the body.