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Big revolt brewing in CPI-M

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

A major revolt is brewing in the Communist Party of India (Marxist), with at least three leaders asking uncomfortable questions about the party's way of functioning.

Though Jyoti Basu, the West Bengal chief minister and politburo member of the CPI-M, is trying to placate the rebels, his staunch followers -- Saifuddin Chowdhury, former CPI-M MP and central committee member; Subhash Chakraborty, West Bengal transport minister; and Samir Putatunda, secretary of the powerful South 24 Parganas district committee -- are also openly questioning the party leadership on various issues.

Though a player only in West Bengal politics, the key man leading this revolt is Subhash Chakraborty. A former student leader, Chakraborty was extremely close to one of the CPI-M's founder members, Pramode Dasgupta, till the latter passed away. Known to go-getting and efficient, Chakraborty is known in the party for his resourcefulness, with the ability to arrange for men, money and muscle power.

Over the past few years Chakraborty had not only been prevented from entering the West Bengal CPI-M state secretariat, but he and his followers were sidelined even in district committees.

Chakraborty has always been a controversial figure. His critics in the CPI-M leadership felt that his statements as well as lifestyle were "un-Marxistlike".

However, Chakraborty never paid any heed and continued to carry on his activities and increased his popularity by being non-partisan to ordinary people.

Recently, after he and his men were sidetracked in the North 24 Parganas district committee, Chakraborty decided to retaliate. Since he is a Jyoti Basu supporter, he appealed to his leader but Basu could not do much for him.

Around the same period, as the power equations within the party began undergoing changes, other leaders like Saifuddin Chowdhury and Samir Putatunda began asserting their identity.

Chowdhary too had his own list of complaints against the party's top leaders. He was not only dropped from the CPI-M central committee at the party congress in Chandigarh in 1996, but was also denied nomination for the next Lok Sabha elections. He had come under criticism for propagating the political line that if needed the CPI-M should join hands with the Congress in order to oppose the BJP -- the "main enemy."

But there were other reasons for dropping him from the central committee. Chowdhary had drawn the ire of top party leaders for his openness and the fact that he was growing in popularity.

Though shunned by the CPI-M politburo troika of Harkishen Singh Surjeet, Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat, Chowdhury was rehabilitated as a member of the CPI-M state committee in West Bengal.

Three years later, the CPI-M did adopt the line advocated by Chowdhury, but without giving him any credit for it.

With Jyoti Basu seeking retirement on health grounds and elections due in West Bengal in 2001, leaders like Chakraborty and Chowdhury see this is the opportunity to regain lost ground.

But being in power in West Bengal for the last 23 years and also in and out of power in states like Kerala and Tripura, the party's monolithic structure has loosened.

Chakraborty, Chowdhury and Putatunda have raised three issues:

* Democracy within the party.

* Freedom of decision making to state units.

* A discussion on whether the CPI-M leadership failed to take the correct decision in its fight for secularism.

The last seven days witnessed hectic political activity within the CPI-M in Calcutta as well as Delhi. The three rebel leaders consolidated their position by holding closed-door meetings with like-minded partymen.

Realising that this might lead to a split in the CPI-M, Jyoti Basu called over these three leaders and held a discussion. But nothing tangible emerged out of the meeting.

Basu reportedly told them that a split in the party would only weaken the Left movement as had happened in 1967 when the CPI-M split vertically following the peasant uprising at Naxalbari in West Bengal in 1967.

But these CPI-M leaders know that if they take things lying down, their political future will come to an end very soon.

While they have pledged not to split the party, they are determined to carry on their crusade against the "dictatorial attitude of some central leaders."

With only seven days left for the next millennium, Chakraborty has fired his first salvo by saying, " There is neither democracy nor development oriented thinking within the party. Even people working in big corporate houses have the freedom of speech. Then why should it not be there within a political party in a democratic country?"

Earlier, such statements by leaders who had questioned the party leadership had led to summary expulsions, but the party leadership knows that Chakraborty is not just a minister but a force to reckon with in West Bengal.

Moreover, with the realignment of forces within the CPI-M, the unexpected rise of Mamata Banerjee's Trinamul Congress and state elections round the corner, the leadership cannot take any chances.

While parleys are on in Calcutta and New Delhi in both the camps, what the future holds for the CPI-M is evident from Chowdhury's remarks, "I would not comment on these issues in this century but whatever will happen in the next century will be for good. Only a few days are left for the next century."

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