CPI in Kerala still has hangover of Congress links: CPM

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 16 (IANS) The CPI in Kerala continues to have a “hangover” of its old relationship with the Congress, according to the CPI-M.

Communist Party of India-Marxist’s state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan said this to reporters here Sunday, while elaborating on the old alliance the CPI and the Congress had in Kerala in the 1970s.

The two communist parties, however, are at loggerheads today.

“The CPI in Kerala for some reason continues to bask in the hangover of its old links with the Congress, and at times, when some of their leaders speak, it becomes very obvious and comes out,” Vijayan said.

From 1970 to 1979, the CPI and the Congress were part of the alliance that ruled Kerala.

Vijayan also took on CPI state secretary Paniyan Ravindran, who recently hit out at the CPI-M saying the CPI will not be part of any ‘adjustment protest’ against the government as the CPI-M and the ruling Congress had a ‘secret understanding’, and that was why it withdrew from a protest over the solar scam.

“We are very clear on how we decide to call off a protest. We see his statement as nothing beyond a street speech and it does not befit the stature of the post that he holds. Since it is he who spoke about ‘adjustment protest’, let him come out in the open and say which was the ‘adjustment protest’,” Vijayan said.

CPI assistant secretary Prakash Babu said Ravindran will answer all questions raised by Vijayan at a press meet at 10 a.m. Monday.