Com. P Sundarayya Birth Centenary Celebrations begins in Kerala

One year long Birth Centenary Celebrations of the stalwart of the Communist Movement in India, Com. P Sundarayya began with a One day seminar organised by the AKG Centre for Research and Studies in Trivandrum. 1400 Delegates participated in the seminar. The seminar was inaugurated by CPIM General Secretary Com. Prakash Karat. He said that popular criticism notwithstanding, the strength of his party was the system of democratic centralism under which it functioned.

He said even intellectuals close to the party had started suggesting that it should review the system. The criticism was that democratic centralism could lead to an authoritarian kind of functioning. Com Karat said the party workers should make sure that, in implementing democratic centralism, they upheld the basic principles governing it. This could be achieved only by heightening the ideological and organisational awareness about the system. Above all, the party workers should learn from the model set by Sundarayya, he added, describing the life and work of the leader, who was among those responsible for organising a national communist party in the country.

He said the CPI(M)’s ability to mobilise the people for effective political and ideological battles was mainly because of its system of functioning. This was the reason why its political opponents chose to criticise the style and manner of functioning that militated against the basic principles of democratic centralism. On the one side, they were wont to attack the party by using the term ‘Stalinism’ to describe democratic centralism. And, on the other side, they would dub the debates happening in the party’s centralised democratic system as a sign of conflict. He said the system in the party permitted party committees at all levels to discuss any issue before coming to a decision. While ensuring this democratic freedom, they should also obey the decisions of the committees at the higher level. The party derived its strength from criticism and self-criticism, he said.

CPIM Kerala State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan presided over the seminar and spoke on the role played by Com Sundarayya in the formation of Communist party in Kerala. CPIM P B Member and Andhra Pradesh State Secretary Com B V Raghavulu presented a paper on the work of Com Sundarayya . Com V.S. Achuthanandan placed a paper named " Com Sundarayya and the Kisan Movement, CPIM P B member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan spoke about the role played by Com Sundarayya in protecting the party from Left and Right deviations.  On the second session noted scholar from ISI Kolkota Prof. V K Ramachandran placed a paper on the "Agrarian Relations in India". PB Member Com. M A Baby spoke on the work of Com Sundarayya in the formation of Students federation.