CPM to give greater representation to Dalits in its top bodies

The party lashed out at the NDA government for its attempts to dilute the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the amendment bill.(Source: PTI photo)

In order to achieve caste balance in its leadership, the CPM is likely to give a greater representation to Dalits in the central committee (CC) and the politburo (PB) during its ongoing party congress.

Party general secretary Prakash Karat Wednesday indicated that the CPM was looking to bring about a caste balance in its higher echelons in the elections to both the central committee and the politburo, due end of this week. “Wait till the new CC and PB are formed at the end of the party congress,” Karat said, when asked why Dalits were poorly represented at the party’s top level.

The politburo has no representative from the Dalit community since its formation in 1964. In its draft Political Organisational Report, the party has admitted to “an extreme mismatch between the social composition of the total party members and the composition of the higher committees in some states”. “The present situation points out the urgency for education and promotion of cadres from basic classes, Dalits and minorities to the higher committees,” the draft report says.

On the second day of its six-day meet, the CPM adopted two resolutions — “Against the Land Grab Bill” and”On the Occasion of 125th Birth Anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar — For a Special Session of Parliament”.

The party also discussed its draft review report on the “Political Tactical Line”, expected to be adopted on Thursday. While it received 1,432 amendments and 136 suggestions from party members and units, 29 amendments were accepted by the party congress. The review covers a period of 25 years from 1990-91 and the evolution of successive political-tactical lines during these years.

In tune with the review report, Karat dismissed any possibilities of the CPM forging an alliance with “secular” regional parties at the national level, and said the focus would be on “independent growth of the CPM” as well as forging an alliance of the Left democratic forces.

“There will be no national level alliance with these (regional) parties. We are looking at building a broader Left unity. This has nothing to do with elections. It is more fundamental… Any regional understanding with parties will depend on state to state requirements,” he said, adding the party’s earlier attempts of forging a third alternative were “not feasible”.

Karat, however, said it was important to “adopt flexible tactics” with respect to this issue since no political party is “static”. He also admitted the Left had “failed to break the paradigm” of the Congress and the BJP benefiting from each other’s lost ground. The CPM had attempted to rally together parties that did not ally with either the Congress or the BJP since 1998, but its experiments had not met with much success.

The party lashed out at the NDA government for its attempts to dilute the Land Acquisition Act, 2013, and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the amendment bill.

Source:: Indian Express