In a major move on the organisational front, the CPI(M) central committee meeting to be held in Kolkata from September 29 is expected to review the suspensions of Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and party’s state unit secretary Pinarayi Vijayan from the politburo for “violating the norms of the party” by airing their differences in public. The central committee “will take stock of the situation” following the suspension of these two veteran leaders — a decision taken by the politburo this May and endorsed by the central committee in June, party sources said. The party’s highest decision-making body taking an audit of the situation can be seen as the CPI(M) putting its house in order to face the “eventuality” of a mid-term election in the wake of the stand-off on nuclear deal.Party sources, however, maintained that the “lifting of the suspension is a matter that needs to be taken by the central committee after reviewing their conduct during the suspension”. They pointed out that there seems to be nothing to suggest that the two Kerala leaders “violated” the party norms by making their differences public. “It is a disciplinary action, and the central committee will take the final call after the discussions”, party sources said. Though both the leaders were suspended from the politburo, they continued to discharge “all other party responsibilities.”Meanwhile, the CPI(M) politburo and central committee will spend substantial amount of time discussing the Indo-US nuclear deal. The party leaders concede that the situation remains the same since the last central committee meeting with the Government showing “no signs of a pause” on operationalising the deal, especially the IAEA safeguard talks. These meetings will also discuss the working of the UPA-Left political committee, which was formed to address the concerns raised by the Left parties on the deal. It may be recalled that the last central committee of the CPI(M) held in Delhi on August 22 and 23 “fully endorsed the stand taken by the politburo that the bilateral agreement negotiated with the US administration will bind India into a strategic alliance with the US with long term consequences”, and authorised the politburo to “take whatever necessary measures to see that the agreement is not operationalised”. The meetings are also expected to discuss the issues like price-rise, Sachar report, BJP’s “communal” agendas and the political situation in the country.
