In a Democratic System, political functionaries such as Chief Ministers, Ministers, MLAs, and MPs are public servants, not sovereigns of the people. Their legitimacy derives from the consent of the governed, and their mandate is service, not dominion.
I. The Erosion of Proletarian Ethos in Governance
The performance of Shri Pinarayi Vijayan as Chief Minister of Kerala has been an unequivocal failure, both in governance and in his disposition toward the general public and the political Opposition in the State.
(i) Administrative Opacity
Key policy decisions, including those on the K-Rail SilverLine project, AI camera surveillance contracts, Vizhinjam port agreements, and foreign visits, were characterized by unilateralism and inadequate legislative consultation. The bypassing of the Cabinet system and the sidelining of subject committees contravene the collective leadership principle enshrined in Left tradition. Even allies within the LDF, such as the CPI, repeatedly expressed reservations in public, exposing fractures in coalition dharma.
(ii) Decline in Public Interface
The Chief Minister’s office progressively insulated itself from mass contact. The curtailment of public darbars, discontinuation of ‘Transparent Keralam’ grievance redressal in its original form, limited accessibility to people’s grievances, and the heavy security apparatus during public appearances have widened the distance between the leadership and the proletariat. The “Navakerala Sadas” itself became a heavily choreographed event, with selective audiences and barricaded perimeters, negating the very purpose of mass contact.
(iii) Policing and Dissent
The handling of youth-led agitations, whether by DYFI’s own cadre, opposition student unions, ASHA workers, or environmental protesters in Wayanad and against SilverLine, revealed an authoritarian impulse. The use of preventive detention under KAAPA, slapping of non-bailable sections for sloganeering, and the characterization of dissent as “anti-development” or “funded by extremists” contravenes fundamental Left principles of mass mobilization and the right to dissent. The Party that once led the "Vimochana Samaram" now criminalizes agitation.
(iv) Bureaucratic Overreach and Politicization of Civil Service
The growing reliance on a coterie of favored IAS officers and personal staff, bypassing departmental secretaries and elected Ministers, has created a parallel power center. The suspension of civil servants who dissent and the elevation of those demonstrating personal loyalty undermines the Weberian ideal of an impartial bureaucracy and the Left’s own commitment to institutional integrity.
II. Ideological Drift and Credibility Crisis
He has progressively embraced an orientation antithetical to public interest and proletarian ideology.
(i) Penchant for Opulence
The controversy surrounding the CM’s official residence renovation exceeding Rs.15 crore, procurement of luxury vehicles, chartering of private jets for foreign travel, and large delegations at public expense projects an image discordant with the austerity expected of Communist leadership. When lakhs of workers face wage arrears and pensioners await benefits, symbolism matters. The perception of elite detachment alienates the toiling classes and provides ammunition to ideological opponents.
(ii) Allegations and Accountability
Persistent allegations concerning the CM’s family in matters like the CMDRF misuse case, the Sprinklr data deal, the Life Mission project, and the gold smuggling case have not been subjected to transparent intra-party scrutiny. The refusal to countenance independent inquiry, and the shielding of family members from investigation, has damaged the CPI(M)’s moral capital. Historically, the Party expelled leaders for far lesser lapses; the current tolerance of “one rule for leadership, another for cadre” is corrosive.
(iii) Distorted Priorities
The leadership’s political energy appears disproportionately expended on combating the Congress and Shri Rahul Gandhi, while the ideological and organizational offensive against communal and fascist forces lacks equivalent intensity. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the CPI(M) campaign in Kerala targeted the UDF more than the BJP-RSS. This strategic misdirection has created suspicion regarding the Party’s secular and socialist commitments among minorities and progressive sections, who see the Left as enabling BJP by splitting the secular vote.
(iv) Economic Policy Contradictions
While professing Socialism, the government has embraced corporate MOUs and land monetization without adequate social auditing.
The Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) off-budget borrowings, the push for privatization of certain sectors like Keltron components, and concessions to real estate lobbies sit uneasily with proletarian ideology. The Left is seen as administering neoliberalism rather than resisting it.
III. Organizational and Electoral Consequences
His penchant for power, unilateral decision-making, and persistent allegations of corruption have substantially eroded the credibility of the Left Democratic Front and the CPI(M).
(i) Electoral Reversals
The LDF’s performance in the recent general election signals popular disaffection. The loss of traditional strongholds like Alathur, Vadakara, and Attingal, and the decline in vote share among youth, women, minorities, and coastal communities indicate a rupture in the Party’s social base. Even in Kannur and Kasaragod, margins thinned dangerously. The Party’s core working-class vote is fragmenting toward the BJP and Congress.
(ii) Failure of National Opposition Building
The CPI(M) and the Left Front have failed abjectly in forging and consolidating a united Opposition at the National Level. Despite the BJP’s aggressive centralization and assault on Federalism, the Left could not emerge as a credible nucleus for anti-BJP unity.
Its sectarian approach toward non-Left Secular Parties, insistence on mechanical equivalence between Congress and BJP, and refusal to join common minimum programmes alienated potential allies in the INDIA bloc.
(iii) West Bengal Parallel
As a well-wisher of the Left, I consider his departure from office a necessity. Had he continued, the CPI(M) would have confronted a political debacle analogous to that in West Bengal, where prolonged alienation from the masses, arrogance of power, land acquisition misadventures, and organizational decay led to near annihilation. Kerala is witnessing the same symptoms: cadre demoralization, middle-class flight, and intellectual desertion.
(iv) Collapse of Inner-Party Democracy
Dissenting voices within the CPI(M), including senior leaders and mass organization heads, are either silenced or sidelined. State Committee and Secretariat meetings have become ratification forums for decisions already taken by a narrow clique.
This democratic centralism has degenerated into bureaucratic centralism, violating the very organizational principles that built the Party.
IV. The Imperative for Leadership Renewal
Furthermore, Shri Pinarayi Vijayan and Party State Secretary M.V. Govindan should immediately relinquish Party Leadership and withdraw from all party policy-making bodies, for their ideological strength is not appreciated.
(i) Accountability as Principle
Leadership renewal is not personal vendetta but a Leninist norm. The 20th and 21st Party Congresses themselves stressed self-criticism and rectification.
When policies fail, electoral defeats mount, and mass connect is lost, the vanguard must regenerate itself or perish.
(ii) New Stewardship
A new leadership for the Left Front, grounded in Proletarian culture and organically connected with the common and toiling masses, must emerge to assume stewardship. This entails promoting cadre who have risen through trade unions, agricultural workers’ movements, fisherfolk struggles, and student-youth battles, not through patronage or family proximity. Women, Dalit, Adivasi, and minority comrades must be represented in the Polit Bureau and Central Committee in proportion to their mass base.
(iii) Cultural Reorientation
The new leadership must eschew avarice for parliamentary positions and material luxuries. It must revive the culture of simplicity, ideological study, and living among the people that defined the Communist movement during the A.K.G., E.M.S., E.K. Nayanar, and V.S. Achuthanandan eras. Ministers must use public transport, reside in party offices when possible, and declare assets annually before the Party and public.They should come of star hotels and royal palaces. The leaders must stop their medical treatments in foreign countries. Their foreign medical treatments at the costs and tax money if the poor people are contrary to what they are stating.
(iv) Generational Transition
The Party cannot be led indefinitely by septuagenarians and octogenarians. A conscious, planned transition to the 40-55 age group, tested in mass struggles, is urgent. Otherwise, the CPI(M) risks becoming a gerontocracy disconnected from Gen Z aspirations.
V. Rebuilding Trust with the People
The Party must recognize that the common people are not oblivious to contemporary issues; they are acutely cognizant of developments across the globe. Information asymmetry no longer shields leadership from scrutiny.
(i) Transparent Inquiry
Allegations concerning Shri Pinarayi Vijayan and his family ought to have been deliberated upon with utmost seriousness by the Party.
Establishing an independent internal commission with respected veterans, jurists, and trade unionists would restore confidence. “The Party is above individuals” must be practiced, not preached.
(ii) Programmatic Clarity
The CPI(M)’s professed agenda of Secularism and Socialism must be demonstrated through action: defending Federalism against fiscal strangulation, championing public education and health over corporate hospitals and schools, leading struggles against privatization of KSEB and KSRTC, legislating for gig workers and plantation labourers, and building broad platforms against communalism that include all Secular Forces without sectarian preconditions.
(iii) Mass Line Revival
The Party must return to the mass line: "FROM THE MASSES, TO THE MASSES.”_ This requires reactivating area committees, branch meetings, house visits, "kutumbashree" interventions, and cultural interventions through Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham that listen before they lecture. Cadre must spend more time in their locality, not in AC offices.
(iv) Alliance Tactics and Federalism
The Left must abandon the suicidal “equidistance” theory. The principal contradiction in India today is between secular democracy and communal fascism. The CPI(M) should lead in building state-level and national-level anti-BJP platforms, while retaining ideological independence. On federalism, it must spearhead a coalition of southern states and opposition CMs against financial discrimination by the Union.
In a nutshell, the manner in which Shri Pinarayi Vijayan handled political dissent, youth-led agitations, and governance in Kerala contravenes fundamental Left principles. His Association with a communal leader of SNDP has also tarnished the image of left front. The Left cannot defeat the Right by imitating its methods of centralization, opacity, and suppression.
Let the LDF be reinvigorated under new proletarian leadership: leadership that is humble before history, accountable to the class, and militant in defense of Secularism, Federalism, and Social Justice.
LDF, especially CPM should not be reduced to a Limited Corporate Company of Bourgeoisie.
