NEW DELHI: Punjab’s Marxist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet election as general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is a stop gap arrangement until a younger leader becomes acceptable according to a section of Indian media.
The Economic Times an influential daily believes that Surjeet will carry out his duties in the interim period as Cherneko did in the Soviet Union with the aid and assistance of the 17membernewook Politburo. This does not mean that the new leader is a mere dummy He is a bit of a manipulator Surjeet limitation lies in that he does not have any local base to speak of as the C.P.(M) and has been reduced to a token presence in Punjab. That being the case it is unrealistic to expect him to remain the acceptable choice for tong for various party factions. At present he is a good compromise candidate but in the not too distant future inner party equations may change.
It is believed that Surjeet will pass the baton to one of the new six Parkash Karat S.R Pillai Sitaram Yechuri Sunil Maitra Sailen Dasgupta or P. Ramchandran Of the six Karat and Yechuri stand apart. Both were student leaders in Jawaharlal Nehru University and were inducted into the party to assist the aging leadership. Their power influence and rise appear to owe much to their proximity to the apex power center. S.R Pilla is inclusion in the shortlist for succession is also worthy of note because he was reputed to be de facto chief minister of Kerala in the Nayanar government and is experienced capable and an accomplished practitioner of factional politics.
The first thing Surjeet did after setting elected at Madras was to dash to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Rao to discuss Punjab. Raos predecessors to have been a taking Surjeet help to run their Punjab policy of oppression. Of all Indian prime ministers Surjeet is suited ideally as CP (M) leader because under his stewardship of the party it will never come in conflict with the Delhi establishment.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 24, 1992
