Muddling through Madurai

The CPI(M)'s 24th party congress unfolded as expected-leaders confronting failures, grappling with ideological dilemma, and labouring to keep the socialist dream on life support

- NIRMAL JOVIAL/Madurai

In his memoir Ormappadikal, renowned economist M.A. Oommen recounts a revealing encounter with E.M.S. Namboodiripad—CPI(M) ideologue, former general secretary, and Kerala's first chief minister. Oommen had visited Namboodiripad to invite him to his son's wedding. “You want a communist to attend a Christian marriage? Not happening,” EMS replied curtly. Undeterred, Oommen suggested that if the church ceremony was a problem, Namboodiripad could at least attend the reception. “It will be good news for Syrian Christians,” he quipped.

EMS relented. The Marxist stalwart balked at the idea of attending a church wedding, but he could not object to savouring mutton biryani at the banquet.

If biryani can serve as a metaphor for the party's tactical line, the anecdote neatly captures the CPI(M)'s enduring dilemma: how to be ideologically rigid while being pragmatically indulgent.

The dilemma was on full display at the recent 24th party congress in Madurai, where the CPI(M) reaffirmed its commitment to blocking the “marriage” of hindutva and corporate power. The party said the “hindutva-corporate regime represented by the Narendra Modi government” remained its principal adversary—politically and ideologically. It also held up Kerala as a model of socialist governance, even though the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front government in the state has partnered with Adani Group on the Vizhinjam port project, welcomed private universities, and invited private capital to revive failing public enterprises.

Is the CPI(M) trying to have the biryani and eat it too?