THE priority of the CPI is to rebuild the party and attempt to assert our programmes regardless of the position or state of the CPI(M). But there are wide spaces and there is no need for either of us to step on each other's toes," says CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan, known as a firm proponent of Left unity.
While other CPI leaders have been gung-ho about the party's attempts to expand its base after its induction into the United Front Government, Bardhan indulges in what his critics call CPI(M)-speak: "The issue of smaller states and regional aspirations are, at the moment, only diversions. There are other, more important issues, on which the CPI and CPI(M) agree. We should concentrate on those."
It has fallen on Bardhan to walk the tightrope between promoting his party's interests and keeping Big Brother CPI(M) happy. While there are some in the CPI who say in private that Bardhan "should think more about the CPI and less about the CPI(M)", others are quick to point out that Bardhan has played a key role in the initiative taken by the party to build up its organ-isation. "He is also a realist. The fact is that the CPI(M) is the senior partner and he acknowledges this," says a senior CPI leader. Which is why it is he who has been talking to the CPI(M) whenever there is trouble. Of which there has been a bit lately.
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