CPI trolls CPM: 'This is the centenary of only the Tashkent Group'

Thiruvananthapuram: As the CPM celebrates the centenary of the formation of the Communist movement in India, the CPI has been trolling it on social media.

The CPI has taken a dig at the CPM saying it is only celebrating the centenary of the Tashkent group and not of the Communist Party.

The CPM and the CPI have been debating for years when the movement started in India. While the CPM says the groundwork for the Communist movement in India was laid on August 17, 1920, in Tashkent, the CPI(M) has held that it started on December 26, 1925, in Kanpur.

The CPI cyber-criticism and ridicule comes in the wake of CPM leaders changing their profile pictures on social media saying it is the '100th year of Communist Party in India'.

Some CPI leaders responded by changing their profiles on their Facebook pages saying it is only the centenary of the Tashkent Group. Taking a cure from the leaders, the party’s cadres followed suit.

CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan's mention of the dispute added fuel to the cyber battle.

The campaign of the CPI highlights the fact that before the split, the central committee of the united Communist party had accepted that 1925 was the year of formation of the party.

There have been Communist groups at many places in the past, but just thinking about Communism sitting in the loft or rooftop cannot be considered the official body, the CPI argues.

When the Communist Party was formed at Parapram in Pinarayi, Kerala, there was no activity there, so then why does CPI accept it, asks the CPM in its counter argument.

History is based on facts, it cannot be changed through interpretations, CPI state assistant secretary K Prakash Babu wrote in an article in the party's mouthpiece Janayugam. Prakash Babu's article was in response to CPM politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai's writeup that said CPI’s is not a Communist approach.