People's Democracy

HE city of Coimbatore that has played host to many important political events in its history, was host to the recent 17th state conference of the CPI(M). The conference will be remembered for long as a unique event, with its unparalleled magnitude of mass mobilisation on February 14, for the last day’s public rally. More than one lakh people milled around the Sivananda Colony area, from 2.30 p m onwards, to participate in the procession. The procession that started at 4.30 p m, ended only by 10.00 p m and took more than four hours to cross any single point, with party leaders waving to those participating in the rally from a specially erected platform. There was a public meeting in the VOC Park area at the end of the procession. General secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Polit Bureau members Prakash Karat, R Umanath and P Ramachandran, Central Secretariat member K Varadarajan, Central Committee members N Sankariah, N Varadarajan and T K Rangarajan, and state committee members A Soundararajan, Vasuki and Balabarathy, among others, addressed the meeting. Chaired by Coimbatore (West) district secretary P R Natarajan, the meeting was followed by folk dances, drama and other cultural programmes by art troupes.

Veteran leader and one of the CITU’s founders K Ramani, a state secretariat member of the party, headed the reception committee that hosted the conference. Reception committee secretary P R Natarajan and other party or mass organisation leaders like U K Vellingiri, K C Karunakaran, N V Damodaran, R Balakrishnan, R Govindaraj, C Padmanabhan, U K Sivagnanam, Krishnamachari and others ably assisted Ramani, working round the clock for months to make the conference a memorable event.

The four-day conference started with the flag hoisting by Pappa Umanath on February 11 morning. On the same day, at the call of the party’s state secretariat, the party units throughout the state hoisted flags at the same time the red flag was hoisted at the conference venue. Significantly, the date marked the birth anniversary of Singaravelar, the pioneer of the communist movement in this part of the country; and the anniversary of the heroic martyrdom of some comrades in Salem Jail.

Before the flag hoisting, the flagpole and the martyrs torches were brought from outside. The red flag and the Ponmalai (golden rock) martyrs torch travelled from Trichirapalli where the 16th state conference was held in December 1997. Martyrs' memorial torches were also brought from Salem, Madurai and Venmani (Thanjavur). These torches travelled hundreds of kilometres across the state, carrying the message of the sacrifices made by communists in their struggles against imperialism and class exploitation.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member R Umanath inaugurated the conference. The open session was greeted by state CPI secretary R Nallakannu also. K Varadarajan released the book The History of the Communist Movement in Tamil Nadu (1917 - 1964), authored by N Ramakrishnan. Editor of the party organ Theekkathir, V Meenakshisundaram, received the first copy of the book.

From the 11th afternoon to the 13th forenoon, a clear two days were allotted for deliberations on the political-organisational report that was introduced by N Sankariah on February 11 afternoon. Various resolutions highlighting the people’s issues were moved and passed in between. 

As many as 94 delegates, 16 of them women, took part in the discussions, all of them speaking in a very constructive manner, with a sense of concern for the organisation. Certain questions on political alignments at the central and state levels, in the light of the party programme and earlier resolutions, came up for discussion, and were clarified by Prakash Karat and P Ramachandran when they greeted the conference. After a neat one-hour long summing up by N Sankariah, the report was adopted unanimously with a thunderous applause. Thereafter a new 83-member state committee was elected. Many newly elected district secretaries and other comrades who are being drafted for the party’s organisational work at the state centre found a place in the new team. A 47-member delegation for the party congress was also elected. In an expression of high sense of  unanimity on the proposals, both the panels of names proposed were elected unopposed and without any amendment.

Among other resolutions, two important ones passed in the conference need a mention. One of them acknowledged the services rendered by N Sankariah as the state committee’s secretary for the past 7 years. The other resolution was about the political situation in the state and urged the people of Tamil Nadu to cooperate with the party to face the new offensives.

The newly elected state committee met on February 14 morning and elected N Varadarajan unanimously as its secretary. The conference also elected a four-member state control commission headed by Marimuthu for the new term. In his concluding address, CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet expressed happiness over his participation in a Tamil Nadu state conference for the first time, and then went on to explain the present-day situation. He expressed hope that the party in Tamil Nadu is poised for a leap forward, both organisationally and politically.

In the evenings, there were several public sessions and other events in which party members and general public participated. An exhibition was arranged, depicting the history of the communist movement.  

At a seminar organised on the 12th evening and chaired by T K Rangarajan, Prakash Karat, Mythili Sivaraman, Tamilaruvi Manian and Arunan presented papers on important issues like globalisation, communalism and contemporary literary trends.

The state CPI(M) conference was preceded by district conferences in all the 34 districts in Tamil Nadu, conducted with great zeal and enthusiasm. Apart from considering the organisational requirements in their review reports of the period since the last conference, these conferences highlighted the mounting problems of the people in the respective districts as well as the political issues thrown up during this period. As a matter of fact, such a monumental democratic exercise could be completed with ease and finesse in only a true  Marxist party with revolutionary credentials and traditions. The CPI(M) in Tamil Nadu was gripped with the onerous task of assimilating the experiences of the past 4 years in order to organise various movements. For the people of Coimbatore, the conference came to be a veritable and ecstatic experience of finding out the real political party that can help in the crystallisation of a powerful democratic alternative in the country.

other items on the conference:

profile of the new secretary

a youthful party