‘Pressure tactic’, ‘master-servant’ taunts flow as CPM-CPI continue spat over Deputy Leader post

Thiruvananthapuram: The simmering differences between the CPM and CPI over the Deputy Leader of the Opposition post are turning increasingly acrimonious, with the spat spilling from the party mouthpiece onto social media and into the youth wings of both parties.

CPM state secretariat member C N Mohanan on Thursday hit back at an article in the CPI mouthpiece criticising Opposition Leader Pinarayi Vijayan for reiterating that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition post belonged to the CPM. The exchange escalated further as AIYF state secretary T T Jismon and DYFI state secretary M Vijin joined the war of words.

Taking aim at the CPI’s stand, Mohanan accused the party of resorting to pressure tactics and exploiting its position in the Left front. He also took a swipe at its electoral strength, asking how many Assembly constituencies with two lakh voters had given the CPI even 5,000 votes.

“The CPI is trying to single out Pinarayi Vijayan for attack. The party is adopting a pressure tactic. Its position seems to be that if Left unity is to be maintained, the CPM must put up with it. During the last local body elections, PM SHRI was its revolutionary weapon. It attacked the government from within at that time and embarrassed it. The Assembly election defeat was a continuation of the same,” Mohanan said in a social media post.

He also criticised the CPI’s attempt to claim credit for the formation of the LDF in Kerala.

“It is as though the CPI made some great sacrifice to form the alliance in Kerala. In the 1979 local body elections, the CPI was in alliance with the Congress, but it was the LDF that swept Kerala. The claim that the CPI gave up the Chief Minister’s post to form the LDF falls apart in the face of this fact,” he wrote.

The CPI soon fired back, as AIYF state secretary T T Jismon questioned whether every demand raised by the party amounted to an attack on Pinarayi Vijayan. “If the CPI asks for something, it is called a pressure tactic. If the larger party takes a decision, it becomes the decision of the front. What a wonderful model of coalition democracy,” Jismon quipped.

He also turned the CPM’s criticism of the CPI’s past association with the Congress on its head, pointing out that the CPM, too, had entered into different political alliances and understandings at different stages. “The CPM, which mocks the CPI over its association with the Congress, is itself an ally of the Congress in several States today. The Left front is not a system in which one party takes decisions and the others bow their heads,” Jismon said.

DYFI state secretary M Vijin too joined the exchange, saying Left unity could not be the sole responsibility of the larger party. He said some allies tended to bargain harder during difficult times and stressed that coalition partners should share not only the gains but also the losses.

Jismon, however, made it clear that the CPI would not accept what he described as an unequal relationship within the alliance. “No one in the front is anyone else’s slave. Relations within the front are not those between a master and a servant. Being the larger party is not a licence to silence the others. Those who set out to count votes must also be prepared to account for political values,” he said.