CPM’s Deng not in global Communist meet on meltdown

NEW DELHI: When the brass of Indian Reds hosts an international conference of Communist parties on the capitalist crisis, one Marxist leader will be conspicuous by his absence.

CPM has not listed West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee among delegates attending the three-day meet beginning in New Delhi on November 20.

The party is being represented by its other two Chief Ministers, Kerala’s VS Achuthanandan and Tripura’s Manik Sarkar, besides polit bureau members Sitaram Yechury, MK Pandhe and Biman Bose.

General secretaries of CPM and CPI, Prakash Karat and A BBardhan, respectively, will be the main hosts of the conference, being held in India for the first time.

CPM, however, tried to play down the reason for Mr Bhattacharjee’s exclusion from the delegates’ list. Replying to questions at a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Yechury attributed it to “division of responsibility” as Left Front chairman Biman Bose was attending the conference.

But the reason for the absence of the Chief Minister of a falling red bastion could be deeper. Once given the tag of a reformist Chief Minister, Mr Bhattacharjee is now facing the political tide turning against him and CPM like never before.

In the eye of the storm from outside and within, Mr Bhattacharjee’s cup of woes has been overflowing with disappointments on the policy front, the rise in Maoist violence and repeated electoral debacles.

At this juncture, when Mr Bhattacharjee represents the beleaguered Left Front in West Bengal, CPM is apparently reluctant to project him as one of its tall leaders at an international forum.

Though CPM, as well as its allies, has refused to put the blame for the Left’s setbacks on individual leaders, Mr Bhattacharjee appears to have become the fall guy. At a recent convention organised by CPM in the capital on food security, the party invited the Tripura Chief Minister to inaugurate it after Mr Achuthanandan expressed his inability to come to Delhi. Mr Bhattacharjee was nowhere in the picture.

Considering that the West Bengal Chief Minister was seen as the face of a changing Left, it's rather ironical that he will not be present at the international conference which will be debating the “international capitalist crisis, workers and people’s struggle, alternative and role of communists and working class movement.”

The conference, co-hosted by CPM and CPI, is being attended by 87 delegates from around 50 countries. “The way problems are being resolved now it is only increasing problems of the people. We want to offer solutions which will put people before profits,” Mr Yechury said.

The CPI’s list of delegates comprises Sudhakar Reddy, Gurudas Dasgupta , D Raja, Pallab Sen Gupta and C Divakaran.