Tables turned; CPI dares, CPM wilts

Ajayan

# Ajayan | A rare triumph indeed; the usually timid, muscle-starved CPI has, for once, floored Kerala’s mighty CPM and its iron-fisted helmsman Pinarayi Vijayan. The charges? Ideological treachery, autocratic arrogance and a disdain for even the basic courtesies of coalition politics - all triggered by the State’s stealthy acceptance of the Union Government’s PM SHRI scheme.

Then came the sting that rattled the red fortress: the CPI, in an uncharacteristic show of spine, stood firm, even threatening to boycott the Cabinet meeting,  a symbolic slap echoing across the Left spectrum. Cornered, Pinarayi scrambled into reverse gear, hastily declaring the PM SHRI decision “on hold.” Ironically, just hours earlier, the same government had justified it by pleading Kerala’s “dire” financial straits and a desperate need for Central funds. Yet, when the Cabinet reconvened with CPI back in tow, the government miraculously discovered crores for welfare schemes. So much for austerity!

And the excuse? The pension hike, though modest, was in the manifesto. But so was the solemn pledge not to implement the BJP’s National Education Policy. When pressed about the abrupt freeze of the PM SHRI move, Pinarayi muttered vaguely about “several reasons” - a classic refuge in ambiguity dressed up as consultation.

Translation: the CPM had slipped into full-blown damage control, abandoning ideology at the first whiff of political convenience. Unlike Tamil Nadu, which dares to challenge the Centre in court, Kerala’s Left has painted itself into a corner. It cannot plead “political reasons” for a reversal when those very reasons existed when the MoU was signed. This is not a petty spat between CPM and CPI, as the Chief Minister would have voters believe — it is a betrayal of the very electorate that handed the LDF its mandate based on principles now quietly jettisoned.

As always, the government’s reflex is the ritualistic “committee” - incense offered whenever controversies smother its sanctimony. And these committees find nothing.

It is hardly new for the CPM to play the overbearing elder in the LDF family, but this time the arrogance was operatic. Even senior party leaders were blindsided — the MoU was signed behind their backs, despite the  thunderous rejection of the BJP’s NEP at the party congress and the Cabinet’s prior refusals. When the CPI’s Revenue Minister dared ask in Cabinet if such a move existed, he was met with silence; the meeting smoothly moved on to the next item in the agenda. Days later, the ink was dry, the betrayal complete.

In the scramble for defence the Education Minister then offered a breathtakingly tone-deaf justification: Kerala already implements many Centrally-funded schemes, even in higher education, where the faintest scent of saffron is unmistakable. The CPI’s protest barely scratches the surface of a deeper malaise. However earnestly the government cloaks it in “development” and “funding”, the truth is stark: the CPM in Kerala, once India’s moral compass, now drifts rudderless, ideology bartered for expediency, conviction sold cheap under the banner of pragmatism and personal gains.

The electorate sees through the smoke. This is not merely a policy U-turn - it is the slow, silent funeral of the ideals the CPM once swore to defend. The voice that once thundered against such betrayals, VS Achuthanandan,  is gone. Recall that when he was Chief Minister, one of his ministers, acting on instructions from the party’s state leadership, Pinarayi Vijayan himself at the helm, secretly signed a deal with the Asian Development Bank. Neither the Chief Minister nor his Cabinet knew of it. When VS protested, he faced party censure, not support.

Much water has flowed through Kerala’s 44 rivers since, and VS has become memory. When the electorate is left to ponder which ideals, if any, remain worth defending, comes the unexpected twist, ideology flickers faintly -  not in the mighty CPM, but in its humbled ally. As one CPI leader dryly confided, the party is slowly becoming the “Corrective Party”.