Author: Vinu Abraham
Publication: The Week
Date: March 7, 2004
URL: http://www.the-week.com/24mar07/statescan_article1.htm
Introduction: Marxist hardliners
waiting to nail reformers
Reforms will have to wait. In the
Communist Party of India (Marxist), that is. After its state committee
threw Dr M.P. Parameswaran out of the party for propounding the 'fourth
world' theory, like-minded party members are now under scrutiny. Only the
necessity of projecting an united front for the Lok Sabha elections is
holding the hardliners back.
Parameswaran's 'fourth world' theory
is an alternative to classical Marxism-Leninism, and replaces class conflict
with class co-operation. A branch committee member at the AKG Centre, Parameswaran
is a nuclear scientist trained in communist Russia and is an active member
of the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad, an NGO with Left leanings.
Hardliners allege that Parameswaran
tried to subvert the People's Planning Programme, which was the brainchild
of the late E.M.S. Namboodiripad. His ideas, according to them, made room
for accepting foreign funds from CIA-sponsored agencies for the People's
Programme during the previous Left rule.
It was Paadham, a magazine edited
by Prof. M.N. Vijayan, a non-member who subscribes to Marxism, and Prof.
S. Sudheesh, who was expelled from the party, who raked up the allegations
against Parameswaran. The magazine also pointed fingers at party members
Dr Thomas Issac, one of the directors of the state planning board responsible
for implementing the People's Planning Programme, M.A. Baby, central committee
member, P. Rajeev, resident editor of party organ Deshabhimani, and C.P.
Narayanan, editor of the Leftist weekly Chinta. Another party sympathiser
Dr B. Iqbal, vice-chancellor of the Kerala University and former president
of the Parishad, too, was criticised.
The party state secretariat last
month found Parameswaran guilty of propagating an alternative to Marxism
while giving other reformists, who belong to state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan
faction, a reprieve. However, at the recent meeting of the state committee,
which had a significant representation from the rival V.S. Achuthanandan
faction, Parameswaran was expelled and a number of members, without taking
names, were chastised for not alerting the party about foreign funds.
"My relationship with the party
is like that of a child and his mother," Parameswaran said, as he desisted
from criticising the party. "The mother may rebuke the child but it will
not become her enemy. I believe that the issues I raised are still alive
and the public and the party might debate these in future." Whether he
will appeal to the central committee against his expulsion is not yet clear.
What is clear is that he does not repent his neo- Marxism.
CPI(M) politburo member Prakash
Karat criticised Issac for not following party guidelines on the use of
foreign funds flowing into the parishad and the Centre for Development
Studies. His criticism of the view that the People's Programme could be
an alternative to globalisation is a further blow to Issac and like-minded
comrades. According to Karat, Issac has accepted his mistake in line with
the party procedure of self-criticism.
The hardliners may mount their attack
once the polls are over. "We will decide on what to do about it after studying
these allegations," said Achuthanandan, making it apparent that the issue
is not closed yet.
