Comrades get pay hike, celebrate

New Delhi: After making them slog for decades for a pittance, the Left has finally decided to hike the wages of its full-time activists to give them a slightly better standard of living.

Across the country, "whole timers" - as they are known - are eagerly waiting for the windfall promised to them by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which pays a monthly fixed wage, or salary, to its estimated 25,000 activists.

The lowest monthly slab is now Rs 1,500, which is barely enough to give a decent lifestyle.

If the CPM decision to pay its "whole timers" the minimum wages prescribed by Centre and state governments for unskilled labour is implemented, this amount is likely to rise by a few hundred rupees.

That, party activists say, is something they badly require. "It's a good step," said K Veeriah, a 32-year-old activist who has been with the party since 1997.

Veeriah, who works at the CPM headquarters here as a personal assistant to politburo member Sitaram Yechury, earns Rs 3,300 a month - just a few hundred more than what courier company delivery boys in the city get. Mercifully, his accommodation and family's medical expenses are taken care of by the party.

But he doesn't get to take home even the meagre monthly amount that comes his way although that is less than the notified wage for an unskilled labourer in the national capital.

Worse, Veeriah has to pay around Rs 600 to the party as "levy" annually. This is mandatory for all members.

But Veeriah, the single breadwinner in his family that includes a school-going child, says he does not feel bad. "We find it difficult to meet the expenses in an expensive city like Delhi. It is our commitment to ideology that drives us," Veeriah told IANS.

But mere ideology, the party is realising, cannot fill people's stomachs, not in this age. The CPM says it does not differentiate between the wages of an ordinary "whole timer" and a party leader. Even Yechury or party general secretary Prakash Karat draw more or less the same amount as the others.

But senior leaders get some extra facilities because they need to travel more and interact with people. "They will get vehicles too," explained Roopchand Pal, a college lecturer-turned-CPM Lok Sabha MP from West Bengal.

The party decides a full timer's wage on the basis of the living expenses of the place where he works. If his spouse is employed, the amount would be less. According to Pal, the party stands by members who are in distress.

However, P Karunakaran, an MP from Kerala, pointed out that most members including some MPs found it difficult to make both ends meet. An MP earning Rs 26,000 as salary, including the constituency allowance, gives backs Rs19,500 to the party.

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"If I go for parliamentary committee meetings (for which we get special allowances), things are ok that month. Otherwise it is very tough. As an MP, I end up spending at least Rs 12,000 on taxis alone," he said.

So why is the CPM, which opposes any hike even in MPs' salaries with unflinching regularity, increasing the wages of its members? Some say this is because the poor wages have affected the party membership.

"Cost of living in cities is so high that we found it difficult to manage. So the second generation tends to move away from the party," said a former member who was a full-timer for almost a decade.

Pointing out that surviving on one's income from the party was "almost impossible" the member said: "Whole-timers tend to be isolated at the place they work. Unless you are from a well-off family, which many of the central leaders are, it is extremely difficult to manage. That's why the numbers are dwindling.

"Unlike the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), communist parties do not insist on bachelorhood for members. So everyone tends to have families," she pointed out. This makes it worse.

Things are slightly different in Left-ruled Kerala and West Bengal. "The youth in the two states seem to be more keen to join the party as membership would be advantageous to get jobs," said a sympathiser.

CPM leaders admit that many of them prefer their children not to follow their footsteps. "I have been getting many calls from my former friends asking for jobs for their children. They are keen to keep their children out of the party," another former full-timer told IANS.

The CPM, which claims its popularity has risen since it extended support to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, says it is aware of the realities.

"We found that whole-time cadres are underpaid. It is difficult for them to work with that money. We have decided to make our system more effective."