SENSEX
NIFTY
GOLD
USD/INR

Weather

image 10    C

Kerala News

The New Indian Express News

Kerala / The New Indian Express

details

Reality check: CPM faces recalibration Dilemma

KOZHIKODE: If you wanna call out, call out all religious fundamentalism, screamed a Facebook post from a CPM sympathiser agitated over the double standard of painting the BJP victory in Thiruvananthapuram as communal while refusing to see the IUML victory in Malappuram along the same lines. Speak class politics. Address labourers, students, women, and Gen Z. And come back, wrote another party sympathiser on social media, calling for a complete course correction in the party. These two contrasting reactions from CPM fellow travellers speak volumes on the existential angst the party has been undergoing for the past few years. The results of the local body elections have proved that the Muslim community has completely moved away from the party and the efforts to woo Hindu voters have not yielded desired results. The CPM strategy of singling out the Jamaat-e-Islami has boomeranged, resulting in the consolidation of Muslim votes against the party. Muslim intellectuals say the party has failed to understand the changes in the dynamics within the community, especially after the Sangh Parivar came to power in 2014. They say the community no longer cares about their internal differences and by and large is ready to bury the squabbles in the face of the looming threat from the Sangh Parivar. The IUML is the greatest political beneficiary of the unity of the Muslim community, as evident in the past few elections. The CPM game plan of targeting the Jamaat-UDF alliance did not succeed because it was seen as a move to thwart the unity among the Muslims. The IUML could overcome all organisational issues easily by asserting the need to stand united. The PDP and the INL -- the two Muslim organisations aligned to the CPM -- could not do much in the polarised environment. Leaders like K T Jaleel and P T A Rahim, who helped the party in the past to make inroads into the Muslim community, paled into insignificance because they were seen as CPM agents bent on disturbing the unity in the community. The future course of Kerala politics will largely be a reaction to the reality of the Muslim consolidation and the CPMs reaction to the phenomenon. Some voices in the community believe that it is not ideal to play the victim card for political gains because that would only result in the further alienation of Muslims in society. But it is quite unlikely that the IUML, which has tasted the benefits of the polarisation, will go for a rethink in the immediate future. What will the CPM do to overcome the crisis? Will it amplify the slogan of Muslim fundamentalism louder with the help of people like SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan? There is a strong feeling among CPM sympathisers that keeping Kerala secular is not the burden of the party alone and that it cannot stand mute witness while communalism is being used politically against the party. But there is also a segment in the party which believes that the CPM should return to its core content of addressing the basic issues concerning the people rather than getting involved in communal polemics. These questions will become louder as the state moves closer to the assembly elections. Consolidation vote puts CPM at a crossroads The CPM has come to recognise that Muslim consolidation against the party is a political reality, but remains uncertain about how to respond to it. The Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) has emerged as the principal beneficiary of this consolidation and is expected to reinforce the trend ahead of the assembly elections. Muslim intellectuals argue that the CPM misread the communitys internal dynamics, noting that concerns over the Sangh parivar pose a greater unifying factor than internal differences. Within the CPMs support base, opinion is divided. While one section believes the party should avoid communal polemics, another contends that silence is untenable when communal mobilisation is directed against it.

15 Dec 2025 8:43 am