‘Nobody knows what CPM is trying to correct’: G Sudhakaran

G Sudhakaran, the Ambalapuzha MLA who broke ranks with the CPM ahead of the recent Assembly election, weighs in on the party’s course correction, leadership and future.

Q: The CPM is once again embarking on a course correction. Where is the party headed?
A: Drafting a course correction document is easy. Putting it into practice is not. The party has drawn up such documents before and made some changes, yet it continued to slide. At the grassroots, the appeal the party once had is simply not there anymore. Today, only a few in the party speak and act in line with its Constitution and programme. As Thomas Isaac said, the attitude seems to be, “Let those who want to leave, leave.” The party managed to hold on in Kerala even after losing Bengal and Tripura. But who knows what the picture will be after the next election?

Are you saying the leadership has lost its strength
Who is there in Kerala, apart from Pinarayi Vijayan, to speak for the party? Nobody really knows what exactly is being corrected. There has been no serious attempt to identify what caused the setbacks. Instead, we are seeing flawed analysis and personal attacks.

What can M A Baby’s leadership do about this?
There is not much to criticise about Baby. He is a person who reads and studies. But the party is declining at the national level too. It could soon lose its presence in the Rajya Sabha as well. The situation is so serious that the party could even lose its election symbol. Baby should also ask himself if the party could end up contesting an election under an independent symbol during his tenure.

What hope is there for the party’s second-rung leaders?
What have they done so far to inspire confidence? They are not leaders who have distinguished themselves through struggles or ideological work. K N Balagopal and P Rajeeve were ministers, weren’t they? They had every opportunity to connect with people and win their trust, but failed to make an impression. Balagopal managed to scrape through this time by a narrow margin. Had Aisha Potti contested as an independent, the result could have been different. The Congress, too, lost its plot there.

Are more people in the party now ignoring discipline?
Communism is not about insulting people. A district secretariat member made disparaging remarks about me, my wife, my son and my daughter-in-law. But I had never said anything against him. Such behaviour is only hurting the party. There is nobody to rein it in. Anyone seems free to say whatever they want. Even senior leaders call the Enforcement Directorate a bunch of rowdies. But doesn’t smashing an ED vehicle amount to rowdyism?