Prakash Karat

Calcutta, April 28: The CPM politburo meeting here tomorrow will fine-tune the leadership’s efforts to bridge the differences within the party on special economic zones, land acquisition for industry and the “limits of the investment-friendly policies of Left-ruled states”.

Members from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, where the party had launched protests or joined anti-SEZ agitations, resent the leadership’s “lenient approach” towards SEZs and land acquisition in Bengal, Kerala and Tripura.

Embarrassed at charges of doublespeak from rival parties, these dissenters had moved some amendments to the draft political organisation report at the recent party congress as well as the resolution that formulated the party’s policies and guidelines for its governments. Some of them have been pressing for a vote on the amendments.

Advocating “one party, one line”, CPM leaders from the states where the party is not power want the party to demand a blanket ban on SEZs and “development at the expense of farmers”.

“The politburo has considered some of the amendments. We have finalised the incorporation of some in the political resolution,’’ general secretary Prakash Karat said this evening. “This meeting will basically follow up the decisions of the party congress on organisational issues, including distribution of responsibilities of the members of the new politburo and formation of new committees,’’ he added.

Fellow politburo member and Citu president M.K. Pandhe said the proposed amendments to the political organisation report and the political resolution would be put before the central committee for approval when it meets in May-end.

“Ours is an all-India party. Our policies will be applicable all over the country. But we should also consider the ground realities in the states,” Pandhe said, indicating the tension between pursuing development in tune with post-liberalisation realities in the Left-ruled states while gearing up for anti-reforms activism elsewhere.

“The entire party has to understand the role played by the CPI(M)-led governments and the constraints they face,” the political organisation report says.

The meeting is being held in Calcutta to facilitate the presence of party patriarch Jyoti Basu, who has been made a special invitee to the politburo following his desire to retire from the body.

Basu is likely to raise the issue of the inclusion of his protégé, sports minister Subhas Chakraborty, in the party central committee and state secretariat during the meeting.