CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury today said well-wishers of the Left in India wanted the CPM and CPI to merge as soon as possible a statement that is likely to re-ignite the old reunification debate within the parties. Yechurys comment which was accompanied by a clarification that there was no timeframe yet for a possible merger is significant in view of the fact that the CPI has often called for a merger,and that a greatly weakened CPM is now in power in only Tripura. At a Meet the Press organised by the Andhra Pradesh Union of Working Journalists in Hyderabad,Yechury said,The merger of the two parties,however desirable it may be,has to undergo a certain process. One way of doing it is through the unification of various mass organisations and joint activities at the lower level,which will percolate to the top. The parties are working together now at the mass organisation level. He added,We cannot give a time-table. But all well-wishers of the Left want it to happen as soon as possible. In Delhi,CPI national secretary and Rajya Sabha member D Raja told The Indian Express,We have advocated the need for unification of the communist movement for long. But yes,it now being felt by many communist leaders and sympathisers of communist movement as the necessity today. The CPI has,even in party fora,repeatedly questioned the relevance of having two or more communist parties striving for the same purpose. Only last week,Raja had,at a party function in Vijayawada,voiced the need for the CPI and CPM to come together. Raja,however,disagreed with Yechury that the merger would have to be done at the lower levels. Unless unity takes place at the top level,unification at the lower levels cannot take place. There must be mutual dialogue with trust between the leaderships, he said. Raja pointed out that earlier decisions to merge organisations like Kisan Sabhas and electricity unions at lower levels had failed. The CPM was created in 1964 after it split from the parent CPI,then headed by S A Dange,over ideological differences and the partys position on the Sino-Indian war. Unity moves at the highest levels had been initiated in the early nineties when Indrajit Gupta headed the CPI and Harkishan Singh Surjeet was CPM general secretary. Raja recalled that the talks had led to a circular being issued by both parties seeking establishment of coordination committees at the state level. What is important is that an atmosphere is emerging for unification, Raja said today. The political necessity has to be understood. The only differences between the CPI and CPM today,after all,are programmatic differences. In any case,both parties have been working together at the national level.
