Kerala: VS owns up lapses, but to continue crusade

Thiruvananthapuram: Veteran CPM leader V S Achuthanandan, who has been let off with a public censure by the party central committee, has offered to admit certain lapses which have pushed the party into a difficult situation. But he would continue to fight the rightist aberrations of the state party leadership, according to CPM sources.

This became clear on Tuesday, the second day of the two-day state committee meeting here. The CPM central leadership continued its efforts to help the state party unit to get out of the serious crisis it has landed in following the murder of RMP leader T P Chandrasekharan and evolve a patch-up between V S Achuthanandan and the official faction.

While reporting the central committee resolutions on the issues raised by VS, general secretary Prakash Karat said VS had got the last chance to stay clear of committing breach of discipline. He pointed out that the central committee had taken serious note of VS remarks against the state leadership and his open outburst against party’s policies violating the basic norms of the party.

VS said he would continue to fight the rightist aberrations of the state party leadership.

However, Karat admitted that TP murder had done great damage to the party and put the party in poor light before the public. He said that VS’s pointing fingers on the party on the issue had landed the party in further trouble. He wanted him to correct his ways. He also advised him to avoid repeating his criticism of the state leadership for the SNC-Lavalin case, tying up with PDP and such issues about which the party had already taken a clear stand. Karat asked VS to own up his lapses and told the committee that VS would own it up in public.

Replying to the criticism, Achuthanandan told the state committee that he was admitting certain lapses on his part and admitted that he could have avoided the visit to Chandrasekharan’s house on the day of Neyyattinkara bypoll. However, VS said he had no regret in criticising the rightist aberration of the state party leadership. He would continue to fight such tendencies from within the party, sources said.

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