CPM wakes up to weed out corrupt party members

The party which led the LF Government for the last 20 years in the State and celebrated the occasion last month, has woken up with a rude shock realising that unless the evil influence is arrested,’ the bourgeois converts’ would destroy the red empire they built up the hard way.

Particularly the tardy progress by the three-member complaints cell, constituted this January, to probe into the charges of corruption against party leaders, has also come as a shock to leaders, who want to salvage the situation.

Interestingly, in a move, which reflects both a sense of vengeance against the print media carrying reports about party corruption and state committee’s fear about the agent saboteurs’ within the party, the State leadership recently decided to identify and expel men who have been allegedly leaking information to hostile’ press.

And the leaders sincerely appear to consider it as the first important step which would kill two birds — hostile press and agent saboteurs — with one stone.

The recent public demonstration of anger by Anil Biswas, the editor of Ganashakti, the party’s mouthpiece, and a central committee member, saying that the party had already identified the agent saboteurs leaking sensitive information’ and they would be severely dealt with, is a case in point.

Incidentally, the Personal Ledger Account controversy’, some of the party members’ open defiance of the party line on issues like Operation face-lift Calcutta’ and reports of corruptions within the organisational apparatus,’ have made the leaders desperate notwithstanding the fact that LF is ruling without any real opposition’ in West Bengal.

However, Biswas’ threat which may rightly mean nothing other than trying to be strict with elements defying the sacred party cannon, has another side, and many feel, it might well have hinted at the strong-arm tactics.

If one goes by the mood of the leaders who want to salvage the situation, the process of campaign may well involve gagging of none-too-favourably disposed press’ and systematic weeding out of the corrupt elements’ from the party simultaneously.

During the past week there have been reports that two dailies, which have recently slashed their prices, have run into trouble with the CITU-backed newspaper vendors and facing serious problems in reaching remote areas.

The papers facing the trouble are branded as anti-Government’. Though there are no confirmed reports whether the LF’s big brother, the CPM has had a hand in propping up this mess for the dailies, the development, according to many, indicates revival of CPM’s age-old hatred for the dissenting publications and almost hysterical response to complains about corruption in the party.’