ALAPPUZHA: Targeting the CPM state leadership, former minister G Sudhakaran has warned the party cadre against the culture of promoting coteries, and asserted that the support of people outside the organizational framework was pivotal in ensuring electoral victory for the party.
In an oblique reference to the attack by party supporters on protesters who waved black flags at the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues during the Nava Kerala Sadas, Sudhakaran, who has shared a strained relationship with the state CPM leadership, said if anyone thought that attacking opponents physically was a revolution, they were wrong.
“Those leaders who adore prominent places in the party should be acceptable to the people outside. The party grows with the support of the public. No one can strengthen the party by promoting coteries. If the people outside the party are against us, how can we win an election? You cannot win an election only with the support of party workers and supporters. Maybe, it’s possible at a few places in Kannur, but not in Alappuzha,” he said.
Sudhakaran said an MLA told him not to talk about old incidents. “But people remember the past even if we don’t tell them. Do listen to the incidents that have unfolded in the past. Only then would one know how the present was formed. It’s the responsibility of the current generation to educate the younger ones on how the present evolved, and the persons who strove for it,” Sudhakaran said, speaking at a book release function in Alappuzha on Tuesday.
“Communists had once enjoyed the support of 12% of people in the country. Now it has dwindled to 2.5%. In Kerala, 47% of the population supports the communists. So the party leaders and workers should understand reality and avoid the obduracy that we are above. Every word and deed should be clear,” he said.
‘Never think that slapping opponents is revolution’
“Never think that slapping opponents is a revolution and only a few people are needed in the party,” said Sudhakaran.
He also criticized the former administrators of the Sahithya Pravarthaka Cooperative Society (SPCS). “It was not the Congress or the BJP that destroyed the SPCS and refused to distribute royalty to writers for around 20 years... When I took charge of the portfolio, the arrears to the writers were distributed. The books piled up in the SPCS outlets were sold at a 50% rate. A special account was opened to distribute royalty. Many criticized my stance. Current minister V N Vasavan also stood for the welfare of writers in the assembly then. So he should use his position now to ward off the drawbacks in the running of the SPCS,” Sudhakaran said.