CPM: Wrong to point out Pinarayi Vijayan as morally responsible for poll defeat

New Delhi: CPM Secretary General Mababi on Monday said it would be a mistake to single out the outgoing Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan Moral responsibility for the country’s failure after ten years in power. He made the remarks after a CPM politburo meeting where the results of the Kerala Assembly polls were discussed.“Why should Pinarayi Vijayan be singled out to take the moral responsibility for Kerala’s defeat? Our party is a collective entity. He is the senior most member of the politburo and central committee. When we went to polls as a collective, we said he is leading the campaign and if we get majority, we will decide who will be the prime minister,” Babi said while addressing reporters.“No single comrade should be held accountable. Our leadership will assess the poll results in detail, engaging with all levels of our organization to look at the shortcomings and the role of leadership as a collective. We will conduct self-criticism and rectification, and implement the rectifications in place. “Babi’s remarks assume significance as Kerala is suffering a severe setback, with its centralized leadership model known as the “Pinarai brand” and the poll campaign surrounding its governance facing criticism. The CPI(M), however, has been rebutting all criticism, firmly maintaining that there is no place for “cult politics” in the party and that the campaign is not a one-man show.Talking about the overall impact of the assembly polls in four states and Union Territories, Babi said the “preponderance of right-wing reactionary forces” in most places, except Tamil Nadu, is something that secular and democratic forces need to take seriously.Even in Kerala, Babi noted that the defeat of the vigilantes was a serious setback for the left and democratic forces. He said the LDF government had done a commendable job in these 10 years in the face of “a very vindictive attitude by the central government that was trying to strangle the state government financially”.“The reason for the LDF’s setback in Kerala is a matter of serious concern. Another disturbing development in Kerala is that the BJP won 3 seats while the LDF came second in these seats. This is worrisome for a state like Kerala, which is known for its secular and democratic traditions,” he addedHe added that the party’s central committee will meet from May 22 to 24 to conduct an in-depth analysis of the poll results, including the setback suffered in Kerala and the situation related to the West Bengal elections.Babi termed the victory of Vijay’s TVK in Tamil Nadu as spectacular and said the CPM, CPI and other friendly parties were able to take a very timely stand to ensure that horse-trading was avoided and the people’s verdict was respected.On why the CPM chose to give external support and not join the Tamil Nadu government, Baby said: “We had 2 MLAs, CPI and VCK also had 2 MLAs each. We won these seats as part of the DMK front. Now this (TVK) is another political outfit.” The people’s verdict was in favor of TVK. He said: “Under such circumstances, political morality requires that it is inappropriate for us to make a decision to join the government now.” The CPM general secretary also said that invitations to join the PN government have been sent to all three political parties.“As a party we believe that to be part of government we need to be in large numbers to have a substantive say. So we justified our position very rationally. We are within the democratic process but outside the Tamil Nadu government,” he added.To emphasize that the CPM puts ideology and principles first, Babi recalled that in 1996, when West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu became the prime minister, the party’s central committee decided not to lead the United Front government as prime minister. The CPM subsequently took the position that the party believed that participating in a “bourgeois” coalition government at the Center without a majority would prevent them from pursuing left-leaning policies.Although many senior figures, including then general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjit, supported Basu, a powerful hardliner in the party, they voted against the move. Although Basu silently accepted the party’s decision at the time, he later termed it a “historic mistake” and a missed opportunity for Indian communists to influence national politics.