Communist manifesto: A Keralam edition
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There was a time when Communists spoke of revolution. Then came Kerala. Now the revolution appears to have entered a much more urgent phase - who gets the second chair?
_202608281400395893_H@@IGHT_400_W@@IDTH_600.jpg "Communist Manifesto: A Keralam Edition")
Suddenly, the great Communist vocabulary has acquired a new meaning. “Collective leadership” means: Please consult us before giving the chair to yourself. “Coalition discipline” means: We are comrades, but not when you take our chair. “Political equality” means: If you are getting the first chair, we want the second. And “class struggle” has apparently become a struggle over chairs within the same class of comrades. One almost feels sorry for the furniture.
The poor Deputy Leader's chair must be wondering what it has done to deserve such ideological attention. For years, Communist parties have criticised bourgeois politics for being obsessed with office, position and power. However, here is a fascinating spectacle - after losing government, the Kerala Left has discovered that an opposition chair can be almost as politically valuable as a ministerial chair.
Perhaps the chair is not merely a chair. Perhaps it represents recognition. Perhaps it represents status. Perhaps it represents influence. Or perhaps, as political history repeatedly teaches us, a chair is never just a chair when politicians are involved. The dispute has now become public enough to produce accusations about unilateralism and coalition etiquette. CPI leaders have questioned Pinarayi Vijayan's position, while CPI(M) leader V. Sivankutty has hit back, defending the traditional arrangement and accusing the CPI of violating alliance norms.
The spectacle is wonderfully educational. The CPI says: “Consultation.” The CPI(M) says: “Tradition.” The chair says nothing. It simply waits.
And somewhere Karl Marx must be wondering whether he ever anticipated this particular interpretation of dialectical materialism.
There is another amusing dimension.
The Left has always maintained that individuals are less important than institutions, collective decisions and ideology. But the Deputy Leader dispute has acquired a distinctly personality-driven flavour.
Pinarayi says one thing. Binoy Viswam objects. Sathyan Mokeri writes. V. Sivankutty responds. The comrades are talking to one another through newspapers and public statements. This is not exactly the quiet, disciplined family discussion one imagines when hearing the word “comrade”. It is more like a Communist family WhatsApp group after somebody has changed the group administrator.
And the timing could hardly be more entertaining. The LDF has just suffered a major electoral setback. It needs to examine why voters rejected it, rebuild its organisation, understand changing Kerala and prepare itself for the future. Instead, the Left is spending precious political energy answering a much more immediate question: Who sits next to Pinarayi? Perhaps this is the modern Communist version of revolutionary theory.
First capture the state. If that doesn't work, capture the opposition bench. And if even that fails, at least capture the second chair. There is, however, a serious point beneath the comedy.
The dispute exposes the difficulty of maintaining an alliance when one party is overwhelmingly dominant and the other wants recognition as an equal partner. The CPI is Kerala's second-largest LDF constituent and argues that coalition decisions should be based on consultation and consensus. The CPI(M), as the dominant force in the alliance, relies on precedent and established practice.
So this is not really about furniture. It is about who matters inside the Left. And that is precisely why the argument is so revealing. The Left can lecture other political formations about democratic values, consultation and collective decision-making. But political credibility begins at home. If two parties cannot agree on who should occupy the second chair without publicly quarrelling, voters are entitled to wonder how they would collectively run anything larger.
Perhaps the Kerala Communists need a new slogan. Not “Workers of the world, unite.” Something more immediate. “Comrades of Kerala, please sit down and decide who gets to sit down.” The revolution can wait.
The Deputy Leader's chair apparently cannot. And if the comrades finally settle the dispute, there is one consolation. They will have demonstrated that, after all these years, the Left still knows how to fight for something. Only this time, it is not capitalism. It is the chair.
The CPI and CPI(M), two parties that have spent decades explaining to the world the virtues of collective leadership, ideological discipline and comradeship, are currently locked in a rather un-comradely argument over the post of Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Kerala Assembly. The irony is almost too perfect. The Left has lost power. The UDF is in government. Pinarayi Vijayan is now Leader of the Opposition. And before the comrades can begin the serious business of opposing the government, they have found themselves seriously opposing each other.
What could be more Communist? The CPI wants the Deputy Leader's post. The CPI(M) says tradition is on its side and the position should go to a CPI(M) legislator. CPI leaders argue that the decision cannot be taken unilaterally and that coalition politics requires consultation and equality.Suddenly, the great Communist vocabulary has acquired a new meaning. “Collective leadership” means: Please consult us before giving the chair to yourself. “Coalition discipline” means: We are comrades, but not when you take our chair. “Political equality” means: If you are getting the first chair, we want the second. And “class struggle” has apparently become a struggle over chairs within the same class of comrades. One almost feels sorry for the furniture.
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Perhaps the chair is not merely a chair. Perhaps it represents recognition. Perhaps it represents status. Perhaps it represents influence. Or perhaps, as political history repeatedly teaches us, a chair is never just a chair when politicians are involved. The dispute has now become public enough to produce accusations about unilateralism and coalition etiquette. CPI leaders have questioned Pinarayi Vijayan's position, while CPI(M) leader V. Sivankutty has hit back, defending the traditional arrangement and accusing the CPI of violating alliance norms.
The spectacle is wonderfully educational. The CPI says: “Consultation.” The CPI(M) says: “Tradition.” The chair says nothing. It simply waits.
And somewhere Karl Marx must be wondering whether he ever anticipated this particular interpretation of dialectical materialism.
There is another amusing dimension.
The Left has always maintained that individuals are less important than institutions, collective decisions and ideology. But the Deputy Leader dispute has acquired a distinctly personality-driven flavour.
Pinarayi says one thing. Binoy Viswam objects. Sathyan Mokeri writes. V. Sivankutty responds. The comrades are talking to one another through newspapers and public statements. This is not exactly the quiet, disciplined family discussion one imagines when hearing the word “comrade”. It is more like a Communist family WhatsApp group after somebody has changed the group administrator.
And the timing could hardly be more entertaining. The LDF has just suffered a major electoral setback. It needs to examine why voters rejected it, rebuild its organisation, understand changing Kerala and prepare itself for the future. Instead, the Left is spending precious political energy answering a much more immediate question: Who sits next to Pinarayi? Perhaps this is the modern Communist version of revolutionary theory.
First capture the state. If that doesn't work, capture the opposition bench. And if even that fails, at least capture the second chair. There is, however, a serious point beneath the comedy.
The dispute exposes the difficulty of maintaining an alliance when one party is overwhelmingly dominant and the other wants recognition as an equal partner. The CPI is Kerala's second-largest LDF constituent and argues that coalition decisions should be based on consultation and consensus. The CPI(M), as the dominant force in the alliance, relies on precedent and established practice.
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Perhaps the Kerala Communists need a new slogan. Not “Workers of the world, unite.” Something more immediate. “Comrades of Kerala, please sit down and decide who gets to sit down.” The revolution can wait.
The Deputy Leader's chair apparently cannot. And if the comrades finally settle the dispute, there is one consolation. They will have demonstrated that, after all these years, the Left still knows how to fight for something. Only this time, it is not capitalism. It is the chair.