CPM willing to discuss Subhas

CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury today said the April 29 politburo meeting here would discuss the matter of Subhas Chakraborty’s inclusion in the central committee and state secretariat if anyone raised it.

CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury today said the April 29 politburo meeting here would discuss the matter of Subhas Chakraborty’s inclusion in the central committee and state secretariat if anyone raised it.

“If anybody wants to raise the issue at the politburo meeting on the 29th in Calcutta, it can be discussed. Jyotibabu will be present at the meeting,” Yechury said on the sidelines of a programme of the CPM’s youth wing, DYFI, in Asansol.

The newly constituted politburo’s decision to hold its meeting in the city was obviously aimed to facilitate Basu’s attendance.

The former Bengal chief minister was made a special invitee to the politburo at the 19th congress of the CPM in Coimbatore that concluded on April 3.

Basu had repeatedly said he desired to retire from the apex body because of his inability to attend meetings anywhere outside Calcutta.

CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, in the party congress’s political organisation report, recorded the importance of the veteran leader’s presence in the politburo.

“Despite his illness, Jyoti Basu attended politburo and central committee meetings when held in Calcutta and contributed to the deliberations.… His views and advice have benefited the party,” Karat said.

He and other politburo members said they would meet in Calcutta so that Basu could attend the meetings.

If the meeting here underlines Basu’s importance, Yechury’s remark on Basu’s self-criticism, though couched in eulogy, hints at the displeasure of the younger leader-ship.

“He (Basu) is the most respectable leader among Indian politicians. He has already admitted his mistake and it’s a lesson for all of us. It is the norm of our party that whenever we commit mistakes, we always make self-criticism. Those who work are always susceptible to making mistakes.”

He then added: “But we also hope that such mistakes would not be repeated.’’

Basu had admitted that he had violated party discipline by publicly lobbying for Subhas’s inclusion in the state secretariat and the central committee. He added, though, that “what I said about Subhas was correct”.

“But I should not have told it to you (the media). That was not right from the point of view of party discipline,” he said on April 10.

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