By IANS,
Kolkata : Lashing out at the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) for lacking inner party democracy, expelled party leader Anil Basu Monday said the ongoing rectification process within the party should start from the top.
“CPI-M lacks inner party democracy. They think that all the CPI-M leaders and supporters should act like slaves of the higher leadership. The current leadership are not at all ready to lend a ear to the divergent views within the party.”
“They (current state leadership) feels that everybody within the party should be a ‘yes man’. No party leader or supporter will have the right to question the leadership,” said Basu.
Former CPI-M parliamentarian Basu, who had acquired infamy for his lewd comments against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, has been expelled on the charge of “grievous indiscipline and anti-party activities”.
The decision to expel Basu from the party came after he was slapped a three-month suspension for indulging in corruption and nepotism.
A defiant Basu, during his suspension period, had called a media conference with his wife Sabita and threatened to file a defamation case against state party secretary Biman Bose.
“A communist lives by serving the people. But current leadership feels that a person can be a communist by serving the bosses of Alimuddin Street and A.K. Gopalan Bhawan. State secretary Biman Bose is a liar. I have been expelled from the party because I had pointed out that Singur land acquisition was a wrong move,” he said.
Basu, a Hooghly district strongman under which the Singur area falls, is the first heavyweight leader from the state to be expelled from the party following its drubbing in the 2011 assembly polls.
He was earlier dropped from the state committee as a part of the “purification process”, which the CPI-M had started to weed out undesirable elements alleged to be involved in unethical practices.
Asked that there is feeling that his expulsion from the party is a part of rectification process, Basu said, “The party has said that they have expelled me calling a press conference and rebuking the leadership. It is not at all part of rectification process but a planned move to hush dissident voices. If the rectification has to start then it has to start from the top of the state leadership.”