Prakash Karat (extreme left) looks as VS Achuthanandan (right) speaks at the meeting

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb. 11: Capital punishment, not Das Kapital, is churning the CPM in Kerala, with master theoretician Prakash Karat literally playing a mere spectator.

V.S. Achuthanandan, the former chief minister credited with helping the CPM avert a Bengal-style collapse in the southern state and taking the party within a whisker of retaining power, stunned the leadership last night by publicly launching a tirade that played on “capital punishment”.

The phrase — in communist terminology, it means expulsion from the party, not the presumably less severe form of punishment in the lesser world — was reportedly used a few days ago by a CPM young gun allied with the powerful official faction in the feud-ridden party to target Achuthanandan, popularly known as VS.

“There are some who are raising slogans for giving me capital punishment. I wish to remind them that we communists have faced the gallows, lathis and bullets even before. So don’t try to threaten us with capital punishment. It will have no effect,” the octogenarian said as the audience of party supporters burst into loud applause.

Witnessing the audacious performance from the dais were party boss Karat and other central leaders such as Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat. It is not clear if Yechury and Brinda caught the nuances of VS’s rapier thrusts delivered in Malayalam but the two operative words were uttered in English.

Prakash Karat knows enough Malayalam to figure out what Achuthanandan was driving at. So did the rapturous ranks who had turned up for the public meeting to mark the conclusion of the CPM state conference where VS’s rival Pinarayi Vijayan was anointed as state secretary for a fresh term. Vijayan was also on stage.

The closed-door sessions of the conference, which sought to rid the party of factionalism (read decimation of VS faction), had witnessed frenetic calls for action against the veteran Marxist, for allegedly defying party diktats and aligning with class enemies on a host of issues, including a corruption case in which bete noire Vijayan is one of the accused.

An overzealous member had demanded the “capital punishment” prescribed by the party constitution — expulsion from the party — for VS. Fingers have been pointed at M. Swaraj, a youth leader and Vijayan acolyte, for making the statement but the party is yet to deny or confirm.

Although marginalised in the party state machinery, VS chose to break his silence at the concluding rally last evening.

The message was not lost on the state CPM and the party wasted no time in trying to contain the likely fallout. Politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, who rose to speak next, gave a spin to VS’s words, saying the latter was referring to “false cases” that the incumbent Congress-led government was trying to foist on him. The state Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had recently filed an FIR against VS over alleged irregularities in assigning a piece of land to a relative during his tenure as chief minister.

Vijayan himself took pains to play down VS’s remarks today. Tongue in cheek, he told reporters that VS was not so ignorant of party matters that he would to use a public forum to answer comments, if any, made at a party forum. Such an action would be wrong, he said.

Only a few days ago, Vijayan emerging from his “unanimous” election, had tried his best to rule out differences in the party. “It should not be revealed, but I would still say. It was VS who proposed my name as state secretary,” Vijayan disclosed in mock reluctance.

Observers, however, saw a message in VS’s statement. “His strength is the people which is why he keeps coming back to them to explain his stance,” explained Appukkuttan Valikkunnu, a political observer. “Soon after the split in 1964, the CPM held a Congress in Calcutta. Simultaneously, the CPI too was holding its Congress in Bombay. Foreign countries sent their delegates to the CPI event. When reporters asked EMS how many foreign delegates were arriving for the CPM meet, his reply was that though no delegate was coming from abroad, the people of India were with the party,” Vallikkunnu recounted.

VS represents such a face of the party in Kerala and party officials are finding it difficult to ignore this.