THE CPI(M) was formed as part of the fight against right deviation which had then emerged within the Communist movement in India. While the fight against right deviation had been going on, the extremist Left deviation also appeared within the Party. The fight against both the extremist Left and right trends which had formed within the Communist Party was a usual process. In Russia itself there were discords between Bolsheviks and Mensheviks, following which the two factions broke away to form separate parties. Despite this, the Communist Party in Russia advanced towards victory by fighting against Left extremist tendencies, as well as Narodniks. In Kerala also, the Party has enormous experience of fighting victoriously against both extremist Left and right deviationism. At the 7th Party Congress held in Kolkata in 1964, the Party Programme was formulated by adopting the position against right deviationism. While adopting this position, the Party put aside the issues concerning the international ideological schism and national question in India for detailed discussions. The Burdwan Plenum was conducted in 1968 for discussing such issues. The vast majority of the delegates, who participated at this Plenum, rejected the Left sectarian position. The document adopted and presented by the Central Committee was passed with majority vote, while it faced strong opposition from the minority. Through this, the fight against Left sectarianism had been completed. It is not correct to say that after the Burdwan Plenum such ideology failed completely. No discussion had been held at the Burdwan Plenum regarding the national question. Though the Ideological Resolution passed at the Plenum touched upon the Cultural Revolution, it is a fact that the depth of the losses committed by it was not mentioned in the document. However, in general, the Plenum was able to line up the entire movement on the revolutionary path facing the Left deviations. The ideology of those who had the Left extremist positions inside the Party led to the Naxalbari Movement in West Bengal. In Kerala also, there was an impact of such ideologies. Some identical political situations happened to prevail in West Bengal and Kerala during the period. At the time of Naxalbari revolt, the CPI(M)-led coalition was ruling in West Bengal. In Kerala too, the seven-party alliance led by the Party was running the government. It was in this period that both those governments were taking steps towards land reforms. As there was lack of a clear stand on the intervention of the Party in parliamentary politics, it seems that a thinking arose among the youth that the government of the day would not bring such a world that they wish. During this period, there was a tendency of propagating colourful and exciting stories and articles on Chinese Revolution. Propaganda done by the Chinese Radio, including in Malayalam, took the background for strengthening the Left extremist ideology throughout the state. They had put forward a stand that was dead-against a political movement that materialised on the basis of the organised working class, peasantry who fought against the enemy and the classes and masses who were in fight for real democracy and the organised efforts of all these groups. The Chinese leadership supported those who adhered to the Left extremist position in general. In 1967, after the United Front government came to power, a state-level Party Plenum was held. Serious conflicts between those who adhere to Left extremist position and the Party leadership came out at the platform. It has been recorded by EMS Namboodiripad in his book, Communist Party in Kerala. Before the Plenum, when the Central Committee meeting was held at Kozhikode, there was a demonstration at the venue by the Left extremist wing. Such was the situation then in Kerala. It was at the end of 1968, that Naxalite assaults started in Kerala. It was at Thalassery and Pulpally that these assaults took place. In fact, it was a declaration by the extremists that they were encountering the state government. When the Naxalites organised these attacks, the stand of parties such as the Congress and the CPI was that the CPI(M) was instigating the attacks. Along with this, another kind of propaganda was also in the air. It branded the people who were leading such extremist attacks as the real revolutionaries. A series of assaults continued. By raising the slogan of annihilating class enemy, the Left extremists organised assaults and murders at Kongad, Kilimanoor, Nagaroor, etc. Individuals and families were attacked in all these places by the Naxalites. It was in this period that the Left extremist activities in various forms were organised. It was as a part of these activities, the then United Front convener and state secretariat member of the Party, Azhikodan Raghavan, was murdered. It came to light that a plot had been hatched to murder Comrade EMS, who was then the chief minister of the state. In such a situation, we were compelled to ask for police protection for EMS. It was elucidated from such activities of the Naxalites that campaigning and mobilising the working masses against the ruling class policies was not their target. They did not have the patience and political consciousness needed for such actions. They ridiculed the revolutionary strategy to advance by applying the tactics as per the changes in the concrete conditions. Instead of this, they took the easy path of organising the youth, and then, with them, organising activities that create terror. As usual such Left extremist positions influenced the youth and student movements very much. It was at that stage that the Party sought to build an organisation by weaning the youth away from the influence of the rightist forces and to direct them in the right way. It was at this time that the attempt to impose the Left extremist ideology was active. To organise a youth movement, at the initiative of the CPI (M), a meeting was held in January, 1967 at Deshabhimani office, Kozhikode. An Organising Committee was formed at this meeting. AK Gopalan, C H Kanaran and P Govinda Pillai participated in the meeting. It was Comrade Kanaran who presented the outline of the organisation at the meeting. It was decided to name the newly formed organisation as Kerala Socialist Youth Federation. The first state conference of the Kerala Socialist Youth Federation was held at the Town Hall, Kozhikode on June 22-23, 1968. Kozhikode was the centre of operation of Kunnikkal Narayanan who had adopted Left extremist position. On the day before the state conference of the Socialist Youth Federation, Kunnikkal Narayanan held a meeting of the like-minded people. Some of the delegates of the conference also participated in that meeting. A group of Naxalite minded delegates walked out from the faction's meeting held on the day before the conference. At the outset of the conference, the Left extremists began to try to impose their ideology on the organisation. At last it was compelled to expel such people from the conference. When such people tried to build a parallel organisation, it became necessary to expel them from the youth movement, and with the strong support of the right wing media, they went ahead with their activities. The right wing media gave prime importance to their actions. They gave exaggerating reports even on trivial mistakes occurring in our work. These ideas influenced mostly the youths, especially those coming from middle class families. The Party had taken actions to overcome the situations arising out of the Left extremist thinking. For this purpose, the Party stressed to conduct theoretical work. The Party organised study classes for the state and district level workers and also for those in the lower strata of the organisation with the view to achieve understanding on Marxist classics. Such study classes helped in giving clear direction to the cadres of the youth organisation. State-level study classes conducted under the leadership of EMS made magnificent contributions in this respect. Such tendencies were very strong in the student front also. The conference of the Kerala Students’ Federation held at Palakkad in 1967 had been seized by the Left extremists through voting. The CPI(M) adopted a stand to intervene strongly in this front. The Party organised study classes itself for giving ideologically correct understanding to the student cadres. The study camp conducted at Chittoor, Palakkad was a remarkable work of intervention in the student front. Workers from the youth front also participated in this camp. Com Basavapunnaiah took the leading role in the study classes in this camp. This endeavour gave strength to the cadres working in this sector to give a perfect ideological clarity and organise fight against Left extremism in the state. In continuation to this, so many classes were held throughout the state. The Party adopted a stand to organise the student movement by weaning them away from the Left extremists. Such activities in the student front became so active that they led the student community towards a correct position. During the Emergency period, some attacks came from the part of the rulers against student movement. But by 1980s, the student movement became very powerful by overcoming these attacks. Violence and murders became a regular event throughout the state with the Naxalites promoting annihilation theory. Hence it made an impression among the people that this is a terrorist organisation. Along with this, state-sponsored terrorism came into being such as after arresting Naxalite leader Varghese in the Wayanadan Hills, the police fastened him and gouged his eyes and then shot him to death. Following the spate of violence, some Naxalite workers were arrested and some went underground. Those who were out of the prison or underground had not been in an exciting mindset as they were earlier. The ruling class and its media also withdrew from their earlier exciting attachment and support. During the period of fierce violence by the Naxalites, our work in the youth and student fronts was difficult. Our cause and programme were seriously criticised by the ultra Leftist and the right wing media gave great importance to such criticisms. Our youth organisation conducted creative activities during this period. In the place of individual terrorist politics of the Left extremists, we organised actions mobilising the entire youth community in this period. We organised agitational and propaganda work among the youth for raising their political consciousness and scientific thinking and then mobilising them against unemployment and discrimination against the state by the central government. During this period, remarkable agitations were conducted against unemployment. It was in Kerala that the slogan of job or jobless wages was raised at first. Such agitations taking up basic issues of the youth became very helpful to strengthen the mass base of the youth organisation. These interventions helped not only to face the Left extremist policies, but also to impede the youth going towards the rightist forces. The Left extremist ideology influenced some other sections also, though it was negligible. In trade union front, such as in electricity sector, there were some attempts to influence the workers. The Party could defeat these efforts by the ultra Leftists. During the period when in Kerala the Left extremist activities were going on, the Party organised campaigns to oppose their political theory and the meaninglessness of the annihilation theory. Along this campaign, the Party adhered to a strong stand against the state-sponsored terrorism also. The Party adopted such a position, including in the brutal murder of Varghese. The government led by the Party in 1967 was making efforts to enforce a legislation on land reforms. The Act brought out by that government later created a situation to distribute 1,22,981 hectares of land among 2,99,569 households. Though the government could pass this Land Reforms Bill, before the implementation of the law, some constituents of the coalition such as CPI, RSP and the Muslim League deserted the coalition and then the government fell. Then the historic struggle was organised taking along peasants and agricultural workers to enforce the law. 'Encirclement of 10 cents of land' was also conducted. Many of our cadres were murdered by the police and goondas of the landlords during this struggle. Today the Naxalites in Kerala are scattered away in smaller groups. Many of them gave up politics. And some others became the champions of the right wing politics. There was somebody who contested the elections with the UDF. Those who had a little influence in CPI (ML) Red Flag joined the CPI(M) en-mass. Today the Left extremists do not have the organisational ability or influence among the masses. However, it is a fact that the media is trying to spread confusion among our comrades by propagating such extremist ideas. The CPI (M) could propagate in a rightful way the ideas put forward by it and thus to a certain extent able to eliminate the extremist politics from the public sphere. In Kerala, the history of the CPI(M) is that of victoriously overcoming right deviationist tendencies as well as Left extremist positions. Whenever erroneous trends in ideological field arise in different times, the Party could fight such ideas with the help of the Central Committee. It is such interventions that brought up the Communist movement in Kerala till today as per the expectations and enthusiasms of the people. At present, the Party is trying to go forward by overcoming the new political situation. The Palakkad State Plenum of the party put forward a course of action appropriate for the purpose. Now the Party is engaging in the work to implement the decisions of the Plenum. Now the Party is in a bitter ideological struggle against casteist-religious-communal politics. The Party is leading the activities for achieving complete cleanliness and improving agricultural production. It is planning for the preparations for the Fourth International Study Congress to formulate views concerning policies to be adopted at present to find remedy to the development issues of Kerala. The Party is fully and actively engaging in people’s issues of Kerala and going forward by reviewing the work done, at the appropriate time and attended corrections to be needed and by applying in practice the Marxist-Leninist theory.