CPI(M) in its Central Organ, “People’s Democracy” (July 14-20, 2003), has proudly claimed “Several leaders and cadres belonging to the CPI(ML)-New Democracy and its mass organizations – IFTU, GLBKS, PYL, PDSU and POW – resigned and joined the CPI(M).” The report continues “Bojja Bixamaiah, who was a member of the State Committee of New Democracy and State President of IFTU and GLBKS, and other leaders announced their decision to join the CPI(M) at a media conference in Hyderabad on July 10. They were welcomed into the CPI(M) by its State Secretariat member, V. Venkateshwar Rao.”

While CPI(M) has every right to welcome anybody it likes to, it is pertinent to explain how B. Bixamaiah came to be expelled from CPI(ML)-New Democracy.

Andhra Pradesh State Committee of CPI(ML)-New Democracy expelled Bixamaiah from the Party on April 9, 2003. The background of this action lay in the enquiry conducted by the State Committee into charges against Bixamaiah of unauthorized and unaccounted collection and gross misappropriation of Party funds. Bixamaiah had betrayed the SDL strike in Godavari Khani in October 2002 and had constructed a three-storeyed building in Hyderabad without permission of the Party. He had thought it was his right, he fooled himself into believing that Party would stand his misdemeanours and condone them. But when Party took an unequivocal stand against his corruption and misappropriation, he looked for safe heaven for enjoying his ill-begotten wealth. And where else he could find better shelter than in CPI(M), where betraying strike, amassing wealth and anti-people conduct is the norm?

Not that all these facts are not known to the CPI(M) leadership. They are clear as day light, but then in CPI(M) leaders’ eyes these are not to be objected, in their eyes “it is glorious to be rich.”

Bixamaiah, a Betrayer of Strike

IFTU has been playing a pioneering role in the anti-privatization struggle in Singareni Collieries. A number of struggles were led by IFTU. But Bixamaiah undermined these struggles and compromised the prestige of IFTU. In Godavari Khani, IFTU had given a strike call against employment of SDL (Side Loading Dumper) by contractors. Strike evoked powerful response and other unions too joined the strike. However, Bixamaiah, going against the views of local committee of GLBKS and Party leadership, individually withdrew the strike and reported it to newspapers. This action of Bixamaiah was condemned by the workers and also by other unions. These unions condemning Bixamaiah’s action included CITU, the trade union wing of CPI(M). And now the same CPI(M) extols the same Bixamaiah of “contributing to the movements of the people and the working class.”

IFTU had, however, taken this betrayal by Bixamaiah seriously. The very next day workers’ meeting was convened and the leadership offered unconditional apology to the workers for withdrawal of the strike. Bixamaiah was also directed to admit his mistake before the workers. All this may appear unnecessary to CITU and CPI(M) leaders for whom betrayal of workers’ agitation is routine.

During the enquiry, it was found that Bixamaiah had met the SDL contractor twice before the strike on September 16 and again on September 20, 2002. He had settled with him payment of money which obviously he did not report to any Party leader. Initially, he had denied even meeting the contractor but with contractor himself disclosing these meetings, Bixamaiah had to admit them.

Bixamaiah had also made close relations with managers and had sought money from the management for Prajapathshala without approval from the Party, GLBKS or even managing committee of the Prajapathshala. Bixamaiah had become part of the nexus of managers, contractors and corrupt TU leaders so rampant in the coal mines in India.

Bixamaiah’s Corruption Exposed

Bixamaiah, utilizing some activists (who left with him to join CPI(M)), collected huge amounts of funds from different sources without any authorization from the Party and without reporting to the Party. Allegations about his corruption were made for some time both by Adilabad DC and also some IFTU leaders. He flatly denied. However, on the one hand, he demanded enquiry into the allegations and on the other delayed discussion on the subject. When PC did decide to hold enquiry and appointed an enquiry committee, he came in his true colours and started pressurizing the comrades against giving evidence of his corrupt deals. The Enquiry Committee found him guilty of corruption and of trying to scuttle the enquiry. Report of the Enquiry Committee was discussed in the PC and disciplinary action taken against him. Then Bixamaiah changed his tune and started blaming the PC of taking harsh disciplinary action and dragged some other unrelated cases. His logic was that of a thief, no longer denying his corruption but demanding from the Party that his corruption should not be acted upon. There are living monuments of his corruption in the form of property worth far more than the money he was known to have received from VRS.

Not only he indulged in collecting money, he also utilized Party influence in helping his son in his contractor work. This too he thought to be his right, and now he is in good company where helping sons in amassing wealth is quite an accepted thing.

People’s Democracy indulges in CPI(ML) Bashing

While reporting joining of Bixamaiah and his followers in CPI(M), People’s Democracy alleged, quoting them, that CPI(ML)-New Democracy was “damaging the united movements of the Left in Andhra Pradesh. New Democracy was not willing to call the 9 Left parties as communist or Left parties, except simply as “9 parties”.”

It is quite revealing that CPI(M) considers that CPI(ML)-New Democracy has been damaging the united movements in Andhra Pradesh. CPI(ML) has always sincerely participated in the united struggles on agreed issues and we have never heard from CPI(M) that we had damaged the united movements. Recently we, of course, did not join CPI(M) in Asian Social Forum gathering in Hyderabad as we had sharp difference with CPI(M) on the World Social Forum and working together with foreign funded NGOs. It is now well known that Hyderabad gathering was largely funded by international donors. On this there was no united position between CPI(M) and us and hence no question of damaging the issue-based united movements.

About calling 9 parties as communist, we obviously do no treat all the participants of 9 party move as communist parties. We would like to know whether CPI(M) treats all constituents as communist parties. They would do well to clarify that! It is well known that we consider CPI and CPI(M) as revisionist parties and obviously a revisionist party is not a communist party. And some other constituents of 9 party move also consider CPI and CPI(M) as revisionist. Does CPI(M) consider them also as damaging the united movements?

CPI(M) indulges in Self-Glorification

Bixamaiah and his associates have indulged in glorification of CPM as reported by the People’s Democracy calling CPI(M) “as a beacon of the toiling masses”, “fighting against the basic problems of the people of the country”, and “its struggles against the anti-people policies of the central and state governments and the World Bank” etc. A renegade revolutionary is often a good hired singer for counter-revolutionary forces. Bixamaiah has been led to this belated realization after APPC of our Party took a firm stand against his anti-working class actions and corruption. Obviously, he has been asked to sing this tune by CPI(M) leaders, who are, in exchange, whitewashing his degenerate actions. But then what is degeneration for revolutionaries is quite the norm for revisionists.

Bixamaiah did not and could not have voiced all this rubbish while he was in CPI(ML)-New Democracy. The fact is that he did not himself believe all these. After his expulsion from CPI(ML)-New Democracy, it took him over three months to realise this. And in this period he negotiated with leaders of CPI and TRS before opting to join CPI(M). He now hails the role played by CPI(M) in struggles of “Singareni Collieries workers”, but only in May 2003 he had supported and actively worked for AITUC in Singareni Collieries recognition ballot even while TU wing of CPI(M), CITU, was also one of the contestants. CPI(M) leaders have conveniently forgotten this or may be by that time Bixamaiah had not realized that CPI(M) is the beacon of the toiling people!

In this period, Bixamaiah also hobnobbed with TRS. He made press statements against our Party for not supporting separate Telangana. Now this point is missing from his statement quoted in People’s Democracy. It is not clear whether CPI(M) has accepted his point of view on separate Telangana or it was one of those things which he had raised to create a smokescreen to cloud the real reasons for his expulsion from CPI(ML)-New Democracy?

Regarding CPI(M)’s struggle against policies of World Bank, the less said the better. In West Bengal, where they are ruling uninterruptedly since 1977, CPI(M) led Govt. is implementing the policies of World Bank in health, education and several other sectors. It has declared rasta roko and rail roko as illegal and has crushed the struggles of the workers and peasants.

And in Andhra Pradesh itself, World Bank gave its prescriptions of economic reforms against whose effects peasants in Andhra Pradesh conducted a militant, broad-based struggle. In firing on agitating peasants on September 3, 1996 at Kaldari, two peasants were killed. However, Chandrababu Naidu Govt. went ahead and signed World Bank's Agenda for Economic Reforms in Andhra Pradesh. Final document was signed on January 16, 1997. What was the role of CPI(M) then? They and CPI were aligned with TDP and were running Govt. with TDP at the Centre and cooperating with TDP Govt. in A.P. During that period, CPI(M) and CPI did not agree for joint struggle against TDP policies. Is it not a fact that till TDP began supporting NDA in 1998, CPI(M) and CPI neither agreed to any joint agitation against it nor conducted any struggle on their own? Their rupture with TDP had nothing to do with World Bank policies but was due to TDP joining hands with BJP. They are quite shameless in their claims.

In the People’s Democracy report, Bixamaiah is said to have credited CPI(M) with “implementing alternative policies even within the present constitutional limitations.” This is partly correct that the CPI(M) is confined to the limits of the present big bourgeois, big landlord constitution serving the interests of the imperialist powers. Is it not true that interpreting the provisions of this Constitution, higher Courts in India have upheld pro-imperialist policies? Operating for decades under the limits of this constitutional framework, serving the interests of the ruling classes and of imperialism, CPI(M) itself has degenerated into a party of the ruling classes.

Regarding CPI(M)’s role in bringing “all the Left parties on to a single platform”, CPI(M) has been taking a sectarian position in building joint struggles on people’s issues by putting a number of obstacles. Just to give an example, CPI(M) is refusing to participate in any joint move in Punjab in which Pasla (the erstwhile CC member of CPM) led organization is a participant. What does it speak of; definitely not the effort to bring all forces on to a single platform!

Bixamaiah Tries to Screen his Wrongdoing

After disciplinary action against him by APPC, Bixamaiah has been trying to screen the real reasons for action against him by trying to create a smokescreen of his ideological-political differences. He has made statements to the effect that he had been differing with the Party on a number of issues like “Separating from the CPI(M) in 1967 was a mistake”, “semi-feudal, semi-colonial character of Indian society”, “big bourgeois big landlord classes are in power” and some others. Party has not been aware of these positions of Bixamaiah as he had never expressed them in any forum of the Party during his entire stay in the Party. He cannot point out one instance when he had raised such basic ideological-political issues on any occasion; rather on a number of occasions (conferences, plenums etc.) he had supported Party’s position on these issues. Either he had acted in anopportunistic manner all along, or he is playing his role as a hired singer of the anti-revolutionary forces!

It is no place to expound our views on these basic issues. Revolutionaries had separated from CPI(M) in 1967 due to CPI(M)’s repression on the Naxalbari peasant struggle. Revolutionaries had to come out of CPI(M) when the neo-revisionist leadership threw away its mask  and came out against anti-landlord struggle of the peasantry who faced a joint offensive of the reactionaries and revisionists. Naxalbari struggle had in practice drawn a sharp line of demarcation between Marxism-Leninism and revisionism and had showed for the second time (the first being the Great Telangana Armed Struggle) in the history of the communist movement in our country the correctness of the path of people’s war. This has been elementary and could not be otherwise for cadres of CPI(ML) including Bixamaiah and they have upheld these formulations time and again. Over the last 34 years, CPI(M) has further traversed on the road of betrayal of the workers' and people's movements and has degenerated into a Party of ruling classes, albeit mouthing left phrases. We have often called CPI(M) along with its twin, CPI, as the ‘left’ wing of ruling classes.

Bixamaiah has chosen his new pasture with a view to enjoy his ill-gotten wealth. All these talks of workers and people’s movement are a smokescreen. When Party expected him to build workers’ movement, he embarked on building a big building; when Party expected him to sacrifice everything for the cause of the workers, he collected and appropriated funds from the contractors selling off workers’ interests; when Party brought out a rectification circular on “Communist Ideals, Lifestyle and Methods of Work”, he obviously had no use for these as he was swimming away from the revolutionary movement. He has publicly termed these ideals to be against material conditions of today’s movement and has demanded that “general contractors, transporters and chit fund operators should be made Party members." He has obviously chosen well, in CPI(M) there is no dearth of these ‘noblemen’. Moreover, CPI(M) will now have a few more of them. Here he has disclosed the real reason of his departure from revolutionary movement and embracing revisionism. After all “being decides thinking”.

People’s Democracy has tried to paint a picture of exodus from CPI(ML)-New Democracy in Adilabad and to do this they resorted to distortion of facts. To comment on just a few, K. Rajanna was removed from District Committee of the Party in 1998 for misappropriating money of Bhutpoor and Marinmagudi Land Struggle Committee, for occupying 3 acres of land for self and for giving dowry of Rs. 1 lakh. In 2000, he was removed from AIKMS position and as a wholetimer, and subsequently expelled from the Party. K.K. Narsaiah was expelled from the Party in 2000 for misusing Party funds for constrution of his house. After being expelled from the Party, he had joined TDP and then TRS and from TRS he has joined CPI(M). But CPI(M) has termed him as a leader of CPI(ML)-New Democracy joining them after spending over two years in TDP and TRS! All others were similarly expelled for different reasons and that too several years back. Moreover they were not leaders of the Party. CPI(M) has concocted their designations in our Party. More importantly, they were expelled many years back and have pursued different vocations in the interim period. To term them as leaders of CPI(ML)-New Democracy shows the utter bankruptcy of CPI(M) leadership. However, we wish them well for the “entry” of these “great men” to build whatever CPI(M) thinks they are capable of building.

A TV commentator, after interviewing Bixamaih and CPI(M) leaders, has aptly summarized that in losing Bixamaiah CPI(ML)-New Democracy has lost nothing and in gaining Bixamaiah, CPI(M) has gained nothing.