Division over participation in Govt.

By C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, OCT. 21. That there is considerable resistance in the CPI(M) to the proposition for participation in the Government at the Centre has become evident with a fair number of delegates to the party's special conference, now on here, expressing themselves against the relevant amendment to the Party Programme.

This does not, however, mean that the amendment is about to be rejected by the conference. A suggestion that the proposition need be incorporated only as an explanatory note to the Party Programme has come up. However, the leadership is said to be keen on incorporating the provision in the Party Programme itself.

The divergent perceptions of the delegates on the crucial question, which is sought to be played down by the party leadership as merely an explanatory amendment, surfaced as the delegations went into a huddle for the group discussion on the draft amendments late Friday evening. Both the contingents from West Bengal and Kerala were divided on the question, the division being particularly sharp in the case of the latter.

The amendment was among the official ones presented to the conference earlier in the day by the party politburo member, Mr. Prakash Karat. The amendment involves a reworking of the original paragraph in the Party Programme relating to the question of participation in Governments ``to explain that it applies to both the State and Central Governments'' and that the decision is to be taken ``depending on the concrete situation''.

A division on the question at the meeting of the Kerala delegation saw 47 persons supporting the amendment and 40 opposing it with one abstention. Majority support for the proposal for participation is significant because at the 1998 Calcutta Party Congress, only seven delegates from Kerala were supportive of the view that the decision not to join the 1996 United Front Government was a ``historic blunder''.

Interestingly, those on either side of the divide yesterday belonged to rival factions of the State CPI(M) suggesting that the factional pulls mattered little when it came to airing the delegates' views on the controversial issue. The situation was even more so at Calcutta where the rival factions of the time were more or less unanimous in opposing the ``historic blunder'' line.

The divide in the Bengal delegation on Friday was also equally noteworthy, but not as sharp as that in the case of its Kerala counterpart, if one is to go by party insiders. Here too the majority was in favour of the pro-participation line. Mr. Gautam Deb was among those who spoke on the amendments from Bengal at the conference today. The balance, it appears, would be tilted one way or the other by delegates from the other States, but the small problem is that they too are not united on the issue.

Briefing reporters about the deliberations today, Mr. Karat said the party programme never barred the party from joining Governments at the Centre or in the States. The amendment was meant to clarify the position.

Asked what had happened between 1998, when the 16th Party Congress rejected the ``historic blunder'' line, and 2000 for the party to think in terms of joining the Central Government, Mr. Karat said the discussion at the Calcutta Congress was about the 1996 decision of the Central Committee not to join the United Front Government. The decision, he pointed out, was not meant for all times. ``The 1996 decision was for 1996. Future Party Congresses and Central committees are not bound by it. The Party Programme provides the guidelines and questions such as joining or not joining Governments are tactical questions which are decided depending on the emerging situation,'' he said.

He conceded that several delegates to the conference had reservations about the amendments relating to nationalisation and abolition of landlordism. They were worried that the proposal that there could be other forms of ownership than State ownership and the removal of the stipulation that landlords would not be compensated would result in dilution of the party's ideological core, he said.

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