Author: S. Chandrasekhar
Publication: Organiser
Date: September 4, 2005
URL: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=94&page=2
CPM rags to riches story; Exposing the bourgeoise
face behind the proletariat facade
Right from local offices to multi-crore headquarters
to TV channel, to newspaper, to hospitals, to banks, to resorts and to a water
theme park, the CPM is no longer a working class party. It is equivalent to
any other corporate body which has interests in various areas and products.
The commies may proclaim themselves a working
class party and their existance as a protection for the deprived and the have-nots,
but six decades of communism have made the Kerala unit of the party the richest,
with assets estimated at a whooping Rs 4,000 crore, something beyond the comprehension
of any corporate body existing in a highly consumerised society like Kerala.
It is ironical that in this mad rush for asset accumulation, the CPM has totally
deviated from its ideology and is functioning as a cut-throat commercial establishment,
thereby becoming a burden on the working class, whom it professes to protect.
Assets
In the forties, fifties and sixties, the aim
of the communists was to expand their base. Right from the seventies their
eyes reverted to property accumulation. Kerala has one per cent of the land
area of India and almost three per cent of the national population. With the
Gulf boom in which lakhs of Keralites went to make money, land prices started
spiralling thereby pushing many to invest in real estates. The CPM made good
use of this opportunity. It is now estimated that the CPM and its feeder organisations
are the single largest owners of land, buildings, properties and estates in
the State.
All the offices of the CPM and its affiliates
like CITU, SFI, DYFI, women organisations, head load workers, government employees,
teachers, college and professional institutions teachers from the Taluk level
to the State level are in prime areas on premises owned by them, throughout
the length and breadth of Kerala. The crowning glory is the multi-crore CPM
state headquarters, AKG Centre with a 1,500-seat centrally airconditio-ned
auditorium in the heart of the capital city of Thiruvanan-thapuram. Exactly
opposite to it, is the multi-storied flat for luxuriously housing its state
leaders. A 60-acre complex and a huge constructed township for purposes of
training CPM cadres called the EMS Academy is another humble abode for the
working class outfit at the capital city.
The multi-crore CPM television channel Kairali
in Malayalam launched five years ago is another major investment apart from
the Malayalam newspaper Deshabhimani which has editions in all the districts
of Kerala. The channel and all the newspaper offices are in premises owned
by the CPM with state-of-the-art technologies.
Hospitals and banks in the co-operative sector
are another major area in which the CPM has a strong stranglehold. Co-operative
banks from the primary level to the state level are mostly under the control
of the CPM. Taking into account the wide scope in the healthcare sector, the
CPM has started creating huge hospital complexes named after departed comrades
in many districts of Kerala.
Kerala, with its divine natural beauty is
a travellers heaven. Taking advantage of this the CPM is through its 'Agricultural
wing' taking possession of acres of land in tourist spots like 'Wagamon' near
Kottayam and 'Athirapalli' in Trichur, to convert it into money spinning tourist
resorts. It is ironical that the CPM which is spearheading a movement against
'Coca-Cola' in Plachimada for misuse of ground water is constructing a multi-crore
water theme park in Kannur district in which lakhs of litres of drinking water
will be wasted. The opposition to the project from its own cadres have been
bulldozed.
Sources
Although the source of funds of any political
organisation is contribution from the public, the funding system of the CPM
is so corporatised, streamlined and institutionalised that it is never short
of funds be it in power or not.
The various service organisations through
their monthly contributions ensure regular flow to the affiliate organisations.
Periodically, funds are collected by them in the respective areas for buildings
construction.
Head load workers, a menacing feature of Kerala
and the muscle of the CITU/CPM, provide the physical power, to implement its
writ on the population of the State. It is a joke in Kerala that even a pregnant
lady or a man with elephant legs has to pay money to the head load workers
for carrying their weight.
Traders and commercial establishments are
threatened into paying money to the CPM coffers. Circulation for its Malayalam
daily is also through bullying of traders, shopkeepers and residents. In addition
'Bucket Collections' another intimidative feature of the CPM, for any reason
under the sun brings crores of rupees to the party periodically.
With the CPM leverage at the Centre, oil major
PSUs, BSNL, other PSUs, are being pressurised to pump crores of rupees into
the CPM channel 'Kairali' as advertisement revenue. The Managing Director
of 'Kairali' regularly accompanies the Prime Minister on his tour abroad.
When the CPM was in power in Kerala, officials close to it, including those
from central cadre officers were sent abroad for purchasing costly electronic
equipments for the 'channel' and to bring it through the 'Green Channel' at
airports.
Kerala, despite its 3% national population is the largest consumer of liquor
in India. Due to prohibition imposed by the Antony led UDF regime, the illicit
liquor lobby has a total sway. The CPM links with this lobby bring crores
of rupees into its coffers which mainly account for the enormous asset accumulation
which the party has achieved in the past one decade. A state-level leader
and former MLA Surendran is under investigation for having links with the
hooch baron Manichan whose killer brew eliminated scores during the Left rule.
Diaries of Manichan reveal that he has been paying sevd scores during the
Left rule. Diaries of Manid scores during the Left rule. Diaries of Manichan
reveal that he has been paying d scores during the Left rule. Diaries of Manichan
reveal that he has been paying sevManichan reveal that he has been paying
sevd scores during the Left rule. Diaries of Mand scores during the Left rule.
Diaries of Manichan revead scores during the Left rud scores during the Left
rule. Diaries of Manichan reveal that he has been paying sevManichan reveal
that he has been paying seve power sector. In the name of establishing new
power projects and renovating existing projects crores passed hands. The recent
controversy in which CPM State Secretary and former power minister Pinarayi
Vijayan is involved, is a glaring example. Rs 375 core given to a Canadian
firm SNC-Lavalin for renovation of projects has gone down the drain, with
no benefit to the State. But certainly the party would have benefitted out
of the deal. Ironically the CPM which is shouting from the roof top for protection
of PSU major BHEL, by-passed BHEL and gave the order to SNC-Lavalin, despite
it offering a lower rate. Obviously, because BHEL cannot offer under-the-table
finances to the CPM.
The CPM presence in the social, cultural,
literary and scientific fields is represented by leaders like MA Baby and
organisations like KSSP (Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad). This ensures strong
CPM presence in the film industry (another money spinning enterprise) and
a social scientific facade to its working-class ideology.
Hypocrites
The CPM and its leaders have become the greatest
hypocrites, the State has ever seen. While leaders like Atchuda-nandan openly
take part in agitations destroying cash crops like coconut and rubber to highlight
the importance of declining paddy cultivation (due to exhorbitant wages demanded
by CPM cadres), many CPM offices and houses of its leaders are built in paddy
reclaimed lands. Similarly, the party had in the sixties expelled members
for giving gold as dowry during marriage of their children, but recently when
the son of late chief minister E.K. Nayanar got married, the bride was decked
in gold from head to toe. In fact, she was fully covered in gold. Similarly,
Nayanar's ashes were immersed in the holy rivers of Kerala and in Kanyakumari.
Comrades as faithful Hindus
The CPM and the SFI had been in the forefront
of the agitation against self-financing professional colleges thereby forcing
Malayali students to go to other states for professional education. But during
the earlier LDF tenure maximum number of schools and colleges were doled out
to Christian/Muslim managements, for a price naturally.
Although ideologically bankrupt, the CPM through
its institutionalised system, has become the most corrupt and hypocritical
outfit. The CPM is the biggest threat to Kerala's economic progress, social
development and cultural unity.
