Is the Communist Party of India (Marxist) set to see another division? If reports are to be believed, the Bengal chapter of the CPI(M) is feeling frustrated with the imposition of the decision of the Prakash Karat lobby because of its stronger numbers in the central committee on it and is now considering a breakaway.
The debate between the Bengal and Kerala lines in the CPI(M) is an age-old issue. But now, the Bengal leadership of the party has started believing that the imposition of the hardliners' call every time is not doing the interests of the state any good and the solution now lies in opting for a separate way. The controversy over the central committee's disallowing veteran leader Sitaram Yechury to Rajya Sabha despite the Bengal leadership wanting it has widened the divide now, may be to an unbridgeable extent.
The Bengal chapter has been let down in the past through the party's objection to late Jyoti Basu's prospects of becoming the prime minister of the country or pulling out of the UPA I government to pave way for an alliance between the Congress and arch-rivals Trinamool Congress at the Centre during UPA II.
Even the expulsion of former Lok Sabha speaker and veteran leader Somnath Chatterjee from the CPI(M) for not toeing its line was not a decision which had gone down well with all in the party. Last year, the CPI(M) was split over its decision to ally with the Congress ahead of the Assembly elections in West Bengal. The Bengal chapter has complained that it has to accept whatever the Karat lobby decides every time and sacrifice the interests of the state.
The Indian Left has seen several splits in their ranks since inception and the last time it had seen such an event was a decade and half ago when the late Saifuddin Choudhury had pulled out to form the Party of Democratic Socialism though it remained of no consequence.
Will it be any different if the Bengal leadership of the CPI(M) choose to do the same? First and foremost, most of the prominent leaders in the CPI(M) in Bengal are too old and not in the best of health. To expect them to form and pull up a new outfit now is akin of wishful thinking.
Secondly, when the Left is fast fading across the country and its ideological rivals – the BJP and Sangh Parivar – are expanding their bases fast, it is almost next to impossible at this moment for a new leftist political party to make any mark. They need both a fresh political orientation and fresh blood to execute an independent political platform. But that again looks unlikely, thanks to the rigid lot we call communists.
