After the election debacles, the CPI (M) has receded to its pre-1959 position. And it will never learn. The structural changes matter little. It has been proposed that the term of the secretariat and of the general secretary will be limited to a minimum of nine years. It would have done better to limit it to two terms, three terms at the most. Curtailing the tenure of office would have democratised the organisation. The present long term of office for the general secretary and the secretariat gives the party a monolithic character. The individual remains far too important though Marx attached little importance to the role of the individual. China and Soviet Russia showed the harmful influence of the personality cult. The CPI (M) has to groom a new and young leadership. The challenges are overwhelming. Most leaders at different levels have proved themselves total failures.
General secretary Prakash Karat has a lot of explaining to do for the signal defeat of the party in West Bengal and Kerala, its two strongholds for decades. It is still not clear what Karat aimed to achieve by withdrawing support to the UPA led by the Congress. The energy pact with the US is still up in the air. His bid for a third force with Mayawati, Jayalalitha and Ajit Singh was doomed to failure. Some party leaders in West Bengal have held him responsible for the losses in the elections. Withdrawal of support to the UPA no doubt paved the way for the rise of the Trinamul Congress. His attack on the state unit’s Singur and Nandigram policy was getting wise after the event. The CPI (M)’s influence on the UPA’s economic policy through the Common Minimum Programme has come to zero. What the CPI (M)’s strategy under Karat’s continued leadership will be remains unclear.