Calcutta, May 5: Mark Zuckerberg loves to claim that he created Facebook to ensure "an open information flow for people". Now, the Marxists have put limits on the openness their comrades can enjoy on social media.
The CPM has come up with a circular that lays down disciplinary guidelines for its members using social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.
The crux of the guidelines: no criticism of the party line, a reiteration of the democratic centralism diktat that has been in place for years.
Many CPM leaders pointed out that this approach had contributed to the gradual political penury of the party, where differences of opinion are often termed as dissension.
"Instead of learning from earlier mistakes and encouraging debate and constructive criticism, this is an apparent anachronistic attempt to gag free thinking. This is utterly regressive," a leader said.
In the circular dated March 2, the CPM politburo has laid down a six-point social media guideline for its members.
The Bengal CPM has translated the circular in Bengali and reprinted it in its Party Chithi 2 - a 14-page "confidential" letter that was circulated strictly among the members.
The circular, which came close on the heels of the beginning of Karl Marx's bicentenary celebrations, says that WhatsApp or Telegram - instant messaging freeware - can be used for propaganda and promotion of various party programmes.
The guidelines, however, bar WhatsApp groups of CPM members from becoming a "sub-unit of the party" for discussing and debating the party line or other organisational matters.
"If any party comrade forms a 'restricted group' and debates and discusses issue A, B, or C, or expresses individual opinion then that would be considered as lobbying within the party," it states.
Sources said the guidelines followed a controversy centred around CPM Rajya Sabha member Ritabrata Banerjee's Facebook posts in February.
Ritabrata had posted a selfie on Facebook in which he was seen wearing an Apple smartwatch and using what looked like a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck pen. A CPM supporter had reposted the picture with a sarcastic caption - "the great leader of the have-nots". The CPM had publicly censured Ritabrata.