Southern States - Kerala   

KSSP draws flak in DYFI organ

By C. Gouridasan Nair

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Nov. 25. The ongoing polemics within and on the fringes of the CPI(M) over the People's Plan Campaign has taken an interesting turn with the Kerala Shastra Sahithya Parishad (KSSP) coming in for a searing attack in the State DYFI official organ `Yuvadhara'.

Writing in the latest issue of the publication, the Purogamana Kalasahithya Sanghom (Pu-ka-sa, for short) vice-president, V.P. Vasudevan, has lashed out at the KSSP leadership and branded it an outfit lacking in even a semblance of democratic spirit, which called for `an urgent whiff of fresh air and light'.

The KSSP, which is already under attack from what is known as the `Padhom' group in the CPI(M) and its environs, led by the Deshabhimani editor, M.N. Vijayan, has been accused of having become a tool of imperialist forces, one that is being used to `deflect discontent' over globalisation and manage dissent in favour of the globalisation project.

Mr. Vasudevan has questioned the rationale of almost every celebrated initiative of the KSSP, including its most much-acclaimed campaign against the Silent Valley hydro-electric project in the late Seventies, its campaign in favour of the District Primary Education Project (DPEP), its interventions in the field of healthcare, its annual `sasthrakalajathas' and, most importantly, its role in the People's Plan Campaign.

Without going into the controversy over whether the KSSP had accepted foreign money for having played a role in the Plan campaign, Mr. Vasudevan says that though the KSSP was born as a popular democratic organisation in the Sixties, it had lost its democratic character in the Seventies and had degenerated to the level of being yet another of the 70,000-odd non-Governmental organisations (NGOs) that came into being all over the world after the Seventies whose main job is to campaign for the development strategy of the G-8 nations.

Taking off from Prof. Vijayans' controversial remark that attempting to force-feed the CPI(M) with fresh air and light of somebody's choice would choke the party and the KSSP leadership's veiled response that it indeed considered the KSSP's task to do so, Mr. Vasudevan has said that the KSSP secretary, N.K. Sasidharan Pillai's remark is a sign of his `total ignorance' about the communist party and its organisational principles enunciated by Lenin. Prof. Vijayan's statement, he points out, arises from the great Soviet leader's counsel that the communist party should function among people like fish in water.

Mr. Vasudevan has accused the bourgeois media of having distorted Prof. Vijayan's statement to make it appear that he and the critics of the KSSP were opposed to democratic values. People who think that there was shortage of fresh air and light in the CPI(M) would find that the KSSP is no less endowed with either. The Silent Valley campaign, he adds, was once such. Even the figures put out by the KSSP were half-truths or lies. The KSSP campaign was that the Silent Valley project was meant to generate 120-MW power at an outlay of Rs. 85 crores. But, actually, the outlay was only Rs. 58 crores and the power proposed to be generated was 240 MW. At that time, Kerala's generation capacity was 800 MW. If the Silent Valley project had come through, it would have meant meeting the prerequisites for development and industrialisation in the State, Mr. Vasudevan points out.

Touching on the phraseology of NGO activity in the post-Seventies which, in his view, the KSSP also shares, Mr. Vasudevan says all the talk about `sustainable development', `participatory development', `social capital', `civil society', `neighbourhood groups' and `participatory democracy' were fine phrases devised by capitalist economists to thwart class struggle and growth of class and mass organisations. `The significance of Mr. Vasudevan's scorching attack is that it appears in the DYFI organ, which has seldom gone to such lengths to participate in inner-party debates on such topics. Given the fact that the DYFI as an organisation is closely identified with specific power centres in the State CPI(M), this could only mean that anybody who is associated with the KSSP and the People's Plan Campaign would find the going tough as and when formal, structured discussions begin in party forums on these contentious topics.

Incidentally, the `Yuvadhara' issue also has a piece by the KSSP secretary on the subject in which he has tried to justify the KSSP position without going into the details of the issue. Mr. Sasidharan has said that the KSSP saw education of the masses as a primary prerequisite for social revolution. Mere faith could hardly be an alternative for informed intervention and that is where the need to infuse fresh air and light becomes imperative, he says, and adds that the idea that the masses should remain impoverished and follow their leaders like cattle has been rejected through practical experience.

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