THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPM state leadership’s endorsement of the crisis management skill displayed by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan last Thursday, thus resolving the political tussle between the governor and the government, has completed the transition of the party from an organisation for which governance was only one of the means to advance the class struggle to a new-generation political movement like Aam Aadmi Party which banks on good governance to reap more benefits.
Sources in CPM said the deliberations in the party-state secretariat last Thursday and Friday were on the lines that there was no point in agitating against Governor Arif Mohammed Khan or taking him head-on as that wouldn’t go down well with the largest middle class and the upper-middle-class electorate of Kerala.
The position taken by CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran that Pinarayi’s visit to Raj Bhavan and subsequent surrender by the government was unwarranted differed from that of CPM leaders as Kanam and his party still believe in the EMS line that said by leading the democratically elected government, the Communist party would need to take governance and struggle together.
E M S Namboodiripad, who led the first and second Communist governments in the state, had seen governance as one of the means for advancing the class struggle for achieving the larger aim of people’s democratic revolution. The other CPM chief ministers, E K Nayanar and V S Achuthanandan, also firmly believed in this line and the politics of the working-class had been the dominant character of the governments they led.
“We are on the threshold of launching large-scale development projects. The government is more focused on that and the 100-day action plan to mark the first anniversary of the present government has just been launched. In a few days, the state budget will also be presented. Unwanted political controversies would only divert attention from these projects which we feel are more important to the state now,” said a CPM leader on condition of anonymity.
The recent criticism of Communist movements by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath has also prompted the CPM to take a cautious approach. “We have to be careful on that front too. Though CPM is in power in only one state, BJP targets us whenever there is an opportunity. A fight between the governor and the CM would be portrayed in a narrative by them nationally,” said the leader.
When CM Pinarayi reported his interaction with Governor Khan at the party secretariat meeting last Thursday, he also suggested that the best option would be to take a strategic retreat. “Even with all the differences, there are some common grounds we can have with Khan. Accommodating him would be better than giving room for (having) some other hardcore Sangh Parivar person who may recreate a Bengal-like scenario here,” said another CPM leader.
Political scientist G Gopakumar said the line of the incumbent LDF government is a pragmatic approach, considering the new-age realities. “Ideologies don’t sell much these days. In this neoliberal era, people judge governments by performance. It is appreciable if a government decides to bury the burden of ideologies and concentrate on performance,” said Gopakumar.
“The same is true with the Centre-state relations. The one factor I have noticed since the first Pinarayi government came to power is the caution he shows to get maximum support for governance from the Centre despite both parties are on the opposite ideological poles,” he said.