CPM rules out merger with CPI

Hyderabad: CPI (M) politburo member Brinda Karat has asserted that merger with CPI is not on the agenda of her party. "We are working very closely and unitedly with all the Left parties and particularly with CPI.

We believe that a united Left is very important but I am not sure what they (CPI) mean by reunification. If they mean merger, that's not on our agenda right now," she told PTI on Sunday.

CPI General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy had in recent times repeatedly pitched for reunification of the Communist and Left parties into a single entity, but shied away from calling his proposal as "merger." "Our party is for reunification of Communist movement. Reunification of communist movement is different from merger. Merger means one party joining another party," Sudhakar Reddy had said.

Karat said: "Unity is certainly very much on our agenda. Merger is a different matter. It's not on our agenda right now. Right now, we are working very very closely with CPI in a united way, and our slogan right now is Left unity. We are not talking about merger, we are talking about unity, struggle and agitations." Earlier, Reddy had said that, "The issues on which Communists were divided in 1964 have become irrelevant now.”

CPI(M) has strongly opposed the idea of bringing political parties under the ambit of RTI, expressing apprehensions that such a move would give an opportunity to government to "snoop and spy" and harass them.

Brinda Karat said the finances of her party were in public domain and accounts had been filed with Election Commission, and "we are very clearly transparent." But bringing under the RTI political parties which were neither government organisation, nor state-ponsored, would give the government an opportunity to look into their politics and to snoop and spy into their political processes, she said.

"We will never allow that. We are totally against it. Snooping and spying into political parties' internal meetings ... snooping and spying is not part of democratic process," Karat said. "If my politburo is meeting and if somebody puts an RTI (asking) who said what ... what business is it anybody else's or the government's because the government can use this (information gathered under RTI) to harass political parties.

She said her party is for state-funding of elections. "(But) State funding has to ensure it does not give advantage to political parties who also are entirely dependent on corporate funding such as the ruling party, and main opposition parties and others also. You can't take from corporate and (also) take from the State. So, it has to be strictly state-funded," she said.

Asked if cash donations to political parties should stop and it has to be only by way of cheque or electronic transfer, Karat said: "Our (CPI-M) base is a poor base ... base of workers ... it's a base of peasants. We have door-to-door collections; we collect Rs 5, Rs 10. Our squads are out to collect money from poor people who do not have bank accounts or cheques." She said her party has not discussed the idea of simultaneous polls to Parliament and state Assemblies, but added that the proposal is not feasible