New Delhi: The central leadership of the CPM has come out against the visit of the Chief Secretary of Kerala to Gujarat under the instructions of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan to study the administrative model in vogue there.
According to party sources, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury has conveyed to the senior party leaders from the State that such an action has helped the BJP derive political mileage.
It is learnt that the State leaders replied to the central leadership that the matter could not be discussed with the Chief Minister since he was away on a foreign tour.
Party's former politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai, who now works in the State-level, said that the State Government had sent the officials to Gujarat to study the Dashboard System that monitors the implementation of projects, and not to study "the Gujarat-type communal violence and bulldozer methods".
But the CPM national leaders are of the view that the visit of the Chief Secretary to Gujarat has put the party on the defensive, especially after the party took a stand in the recently-concluded Party Congress that the present rule in Kerala is the national alternative to Narendra Modi's rule at the Centre.
Moreover, the rank and file of the party were not happy with Pinarayi Vijayan for not criticising the Prime Minister and the BJP at the venue of the Party Congress.
The national leadership considers that people are not bothered about the nitty-gritty of the kind of study undertaken by the officials. The BJP will politically exploit the new development to their advantage.
The CPM Party Congress passed a resolution that the party's foremost mission was to oppose the BJP.
According to sources, the central party leadership is of the view that the State Government's latest action has taken the sting out of the party's campaign against the BJP.
