Mad Rush For Top CPM Jobs!
By Satya Sagar
14 July, 2012
Countercurrents.org
A satirical take on Communist Party Of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat's statement that the lower wages paid to party cadre is the cause of upper caste domination of the party leadership
New Delhi, 15 July 2012: CPI (Mohammad Rafi) News Service : The CPI(M) headquarters saw a mad rush of job applicants after General Secretary Prakash Karat said in a magazine interview that his party paid Rs. 3000-4000 to its whole-time cadre as salary every month. Job seekers from around the country clamoured for immediate appointment to as full time party cadre amidst unruly scenes reminiscent of a typical day at the Indian Parliament.
Karat had mentioned this figure while answering a question as to why the Party's leaders were mostly from upper caste and middle class backgrounds. According to the CPM General Secretary working class members were hesitant to become whole-timers as ' it's not easy to survive on this small amount'.
Contrary to Karat's claim though, the job applicants queuing up outside the CPM were adamant the salary offered was far from trivial.
"I am already collecting Rs.2,500 from the CPI every month and if the CPM gives me even Rs.3,000 my family can survive easily' said Mangat Ram from Darbhanga, Bihar who is also flirting with the CPI(Maoist) in the hope of getting a free gun and some ammunition out of the comrades.
"In these hard times a steady income of Rs.4,000 per month is most welcome, especially as the work involved does not seem to be very much" said Balvinder Singh from Bhatinda, a former truck driver who lost his job after the recent hike in petrol prices.
Asked why he thought the job of a whole-timer in the CPM was a light one Singh quoted Karat's statement in the interview that 'only whole-timers can become top leaders of the party'. He reasoned that since people who actually work for a living are ineligible to lead the party getting anything done was obviously not expected from those appointed to these positions.
The rush of working class folks vying to join the party and become its leaders is expected to bring tears of joy to the current CPM leadership, which apparently has been trying hard for many years to woo able working class people to top Party positions.
“We should have let the working class people know about our salary structure for whole-timers decades ago. The history of the Indian Left would have been very different,” said a long time CPM activist, who did not want to be named.
The upper caste and middle class nature of the CPM’s leadership is held by some political analysts as one of the main reasons why it has failed to mobilise the Indian working classes. Hopefully, with this new policy on filling up vacancies in the party hierarchy the prospects of the Indian Revolution look much brighter.
Note: Prakash Karat's full interview can be seen at: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?281640
Satya Sagar is a writer, journalist and public health activist based in New Delhi. He can be reached at [email protected]
Due to a recent spate of abusive, racist and xenophobic comments we are forced to revise our comment policy and has put all comments on moderation que.