New Delhi, Oct. 11: The CPM will send comrades to school in the hope that those who strayed can be herded back to the straight and narrow, the first such concerted exercise in over a decade and under Prakash Karat.

The study classes will deal with subjects as complex and diverse as God and gold as the CPM grapples with the after-effects of the bourgeois vices on a section of the flock at a time the party’s traditional strongholds are under siege.

CPM sources said a “central party school” will be held in Delhi, where rectification lessons will be taught to select members from across the country. The members will in turn impart the lessons to others.

The school session, expected to be held from November 1 to 5 in Delhi, will have lessons aimed at correcting “lifestyle deviations” and un-communist practices. The session will be different from other classes because the regular exercise usually focuses on theoretical explanations and clarifying ideological positions.

The CPM politburo — the first to be attended by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee since the party’s Lok Sabha poll debacle — today discussed the rectification campaign. A three-day central committee meeting in Delhi from October 23 will give the final shape to the rectification document.

The last rectification document was adopted by the CPM in 1996, although the party congress held in Coimbatore in 2008 spoke of taking up a fresh campaign.

More central schools to deal with policy and organisation issues was one of the ideas Karat had mooted after becoming general secretary. An old-timer said, not entirely in jest, that schools were a better option than being sent to gulags for “reformation” as was the practice in the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The sources said the two issues worrying the party included the influence of “the private sector” on comrades, especially those who became rich “overnight”. “The party functionaries need to resist the lure of the private sector in the form of gifts and parties, etc,” a source said. The issue was on centre stage during the Vedic Village controversy when it emerged that some CPM ministers used to visit the resort.

Another issue that confounds the party is the approach towards religious gatherings, which sources said are an “important aspect” in a democracy. “There is some confusion that needs to be clarified… where the religious functions are held, how we involve with them,” a source said.

A proposal has been mooted to raise the stipend given to the party’s whole-timers, suggesting it shouldn’t be less than the minimum wage in the state concerned.

Whole-timers are paid a pittance (Rs 500 to Rs 800 per month) in north Indian states, though the figure can go up to Rs 4,000-5,000 in strongholds like Bengal. ( )