The people of Kerala have spoken decisively in the recent Panchayat and Municipal elections, delivering a clear rebuke to the corrupt and authoritarian style of governance under Pinarayi Vijayan and his close coterie within the CPM. As one surveys the damage inflicted on a party that was once a credible voice for the poor and the disadvantaged, it is evident how far it has fallen and reduced to an empty shell, stripped of ideological coherence and moral authority.
It is therefore worth revisiting whether the CPM’s past misjudgments continue to haunt it today, accelerating its steady decline and pushing the party toward political irrelevance. Once a formidable force in West Bengal since Independence, the CPM governed the state uninterrupted for 34 years. The turning point came during the final phase of its rule, when land acquisition controversy severely undermined its credibility. The violence in Nandigram proved to be a fatal blow, exposing a governance model increasingly associated with intimidation, favoritism, and corruption at both local and state levels.
At the national level, the CPM remained a powerhouse even as the UPA-1 wrested power from the NDA in 2004. Together, the CPI and CPM commanded more than 61 seats in the Lok Sabha. With such significant representation, the Left could have demanded key portfolios in the Manmohan Singh cabinet, strengthening its national influence while delivering transformative projects to its strongholds in West Bengal and Kerala. Instead, the party squandered this historic opportunity by staying on the sidelines and ultimately withdrawing support from the government over the Indo–U.S. Civil Nuclear Agreement, a landmark deal that legitimized India’s entry into the global nuclear order.
Prakash Karat, then General Secretary of the CPM, will likely be remembered as one of the principal architects of the party’s marginalization in national politics, having presided over decisions that sacrificed strategic influence at the altar of ideological rigidity. His insistence on party discipline culminated in the unfortunate and widely criticized action against a leader of immense stature, the then Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Mr. Somnath Chatterjee, an episode many viewed as a display of political arrogance that further eroded the party’s credibility. What we are witnessing today appears to be a continuation of that decline, now unfolding under the stewardship of Pinarayi Vijayan, with the CPM steadily losing its remaining footholds and diminishing its relevance in contemporary Indian politics.
The Pinarayi Vijayan regime is not only eroding the party’s legacy as a populist force but is also widely perceived as one of the most corrupt administrations in Kerala’s history. It is a striking paradox that a leader who rose from modest beginnings is now seen as embracing luxury and fostering a culture of nepotism. Power is widely believed to be heavily centralized in the Chief Minister’s Office, with cabinet ministers and party functionaries frequently sidelined, thereby weakening collective decision-making. Critics further argue that transparency and accountability have been severely compromised, and that dissent or questioning of authority is met with little tolerance, marking a sharp departure from the Left’s traditional democratic ethos.
Over time, a series of controversies have significantly dented the public image of the Pinarayi Vijayan administration. The gold smuggling case, which involved individuals with alleged links to the Chief Minister’s Office, raised serious questions about oversight and accountability. The LIFE Mission controversy further called attention to possible procedural violations, while irregularities in cooperative banks—allegedly involving party cadres—have reinforced perceptions of entrenched corruption within the system.
Adding to these concerns, T. Veena, the Chief Minister’s daughter, has been named in an ongoing corporate fraud case linked to Cochin Minerals and Rutile Limited (CMRL). The Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has alleged that Veena and her firm, Exalogic Solutions, received approximately ₹2.7 crore from CMRL without providing corresponding services, amounting to alleged fraudulent payments under the Companies Act. The Enforcement Directorate has also reportedly registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with these transactions. These matters remain under investigation.
Equally troubling for the people of Kerala is what critics describe as economic mismanagement by the current government. Rising public debt and increasing dependence on borrowing point to a growing fiscal strain. The administration is accused of showing limited regard for fiscal discipline and offering little clarity on sustainable revenue generation. Despite repeated announcements of memoranda of understanding (MoUs), private investment, outside the consumer sector, has remained limited, resulting in inadequate job creation and continued migration of young Keralites in search of better opportunities elsewhere.
Over the years, the CPM has been the principal nemesis of the BJP in Kerala, with youth cadres from both sides frequently engaging in violent clashes that have tragically resulted in loss of life. The CPM also positioned itself as the foremost proponent and defender of secularism, often castigating the Congress for what it perceived as ideological laxity. CPM leaders routinely and vociferously criticized the BJP’s policies and its Hindutva-driven politics.
However, what has unfolded during the Pinarayi Vijayan regime has given rise to troubling accusations and narratives suggesting informal or tactical understandings, and even collaboration between the CPM and the BJP. Despite multiple corruption allegations involving Pinarayi Vijayan and his family, the BJP has adopted a noticeably soft approach, raising serious questions among political observers. Even the long-pending Lavalin case involving Pinarayi Vijayan has been deferred repeatedly, not at the behest of the defense but reportedly at the request of the prosecution. These developments prompt an uncomfortable question: whether knowingly or otherwise, the CPM has aligned itself with the BJP’s broader objective of creating a Congress-mukt Bharat.
Such short-sightedness is deeply concerning. History shows that the BJP has consistently absorbed or marginalized its partners once it secures a foothold. A compromised and vulnerable Pinarayi Vijayan thus becomes a liability for Kerala, a complacent collaborator who risks opening the door for the BJP to inject communal poison into a state long known for its social harmony. Reports of closed-door meetings between CPM and BJP leaders have further fueled these suspicions. There is widespread speculation that vote transfers or tacit understandings may emerge in the upcoming Assembly elections, serving the interests of both parties. Similar patterns have been observed in West Bengal, where historical accounts from local and panchayat elections describe tactical cooperation between BJP and CPM workers at the grassroots level to counter the Trinamool Congress.
Until now, BJP’s failure to gain a strong foothold in Kerala has largely been due to a vigilant electorate that instinctively shifts support between the UDF and the LDF whenever communal politics appears to gain ground. This delicate voter equilibrium, however, is being severely undermined by the CPM’s alleged attempts to protect the private interests of the Vijayan family.
Pinarayi Vijayan and the present CPM leadership have strayed far from the values and principles upheld by stalwarts such as E. M. S. Namboothiripad and A. K. Gopalan, leaders who dedicated their lives selflessly to the upliftment of the poor and the marginalized without seeking personal gain. While I am not an admirer of communist philosophy, I have always respected those leaders for their idealism, personal sacrifice, and moral integrity, which deserve universal admiration. Pinarayi Vijayan, however, has rewritten that script, sacrificing ideological purity for personal and political survival, pushing the party toward irrelevance and plunging the state into deep uncertainty.
The CPM today stands at a crossroads. Socialism in its classical form has failed across much of the world, and in Kerala the party appears increasingly devoid of a coherent political philosophy. Instead, it seems intent on perpetuating power through policies that erode the state’s financial stability, disturb social peace, and foster opportunistic alliances with communal forces for short-term gains, often accompanied by reckless populism and vote-oriented freebies.
The verdict delivered by the people of Kerala in recent local body elections is not merely an electoral setback; it is a moral indictment. The people of Kerala are no longer blind to these ploys. History offers the CPM a sobering lesson. In West Bengal, prolonged rule bred arrogance, intolerance of dissent, and ultimately collapse. In national politics, ideological inflexibility squandered historic opportunities and hastened marginalization. Kerala now stands at a similar inflection point. The persistence of alleged compromises, whether ideological, ethical, or tactical, threatens not only the party’s future but also the delicate secular and social fabric of the state.
(George Abraham is the vice chair of Indian Overses Congress, USA)
