Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation (CPIML) leader and politburo member Kavita Krishnan has been relieved from leadership positions within the party upon her request. Kavita took to social media to say that she had requested the party to relieve her because she “needed to pursue certain troubling political questions: questions it was not possible to explore and express in my responsibilities as a CPIML leader (sic).”
In her Facebook post, she listed three questions that she needed to retrospect. “1. The need to recognise the importance of defending liberal democracies with all their flaws against rising forms of authoritarian and majoritarian populisms not just in India but around the world; 2. The need to recognise that it is not enough to discuss the Stalin regime, USSR, or China as failed socialisms but as some of the world’s worst authoritarianisms that serve as a model for authoritarian regimes everywhere; 3. The conviction that for our fight for democracy against fascism and growing totalitarianism in India to be consistent, we must acknowledge the entitlement to the same democratic rights and civil liberties for all people across the world, including subjects of socialist totalitarian regimes past and present,” she wrote in her Facebook post.
According to reports, there had been a difference of opinion between her and the party over her recent tweet about socialist regimes. Kavita Krishnan, told The Hindu that she would remain the party’s primary member, but was stepping aside from other responsibilities, and the party has accepted her request.
This is totalitarianism not “socialism” in any sense that Marx meant it. China is a dystopian nightmare. If any Indian communist thinks it’s ok for “communists” to rule like this, then they should ask themselves what kind of democracy they’re fighting for in India? https://t.co/mAEFOXrliL
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) June 26, 2022
In her Facebook post on Thursday, she said that she was deeply thankful for her political journey of nearly three decades with CPIML, AISA and AIPWA and that these movements will continue to be a part of her life. “I will be writing on the substantive issues mentioned above, soon, to share my thinking as it evolves. But I do not wish to address media further (beyond this statement) on the question of my being relieved from CPIML leadership,” she added in the post.