Causes for split irrelevant, we are for merger with CPM: CPI

Maintaining that the reasons for the split in the undivided Communist party more than half a century ago are "irrelevant" now, the CPI today favoured an early merger with CPI(M) citing "general urge" among the people for unification of the Communist movement in India. "Our party is for reunification of the Communist movement. We do believe duplicity of work by various communist parties is meaningless," CPI General Secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy said here. He referred to a letter written in Hindi by a ninth class student in which the teenager put election symbols of CPI and CPI(M) and wondered what's the difference between them and why the two parties are separate. "There is general urge among the people that it (Communist movement) should unite and I feel it is justified and the reasons.. and causes for the split (in 1964) are irrelevant," Reddy said. As for CPI(M)'s response to CPI favouring merger, he said: "They (CPIM) still say that the time (for merger of two parties) has still not come. "But I believe slowly there is a change among them in the recent period. More closer work is there. Now, when the right reactionaries are in such a big offensive, it's time to rethink about these things. So, we would like to appeal to them once again that this is the time to discuss, think about it". Denying that CPI was in a hurry to merge with CPI(M), Reddy said: "We are not in a hurry but we feel it (the merger) should not be eternally postponed like that. We don't force anything." CPI(M) and CPI split in 1964 owing to Sino-Soviet tensions, attitude towards Congress and Communist doctrinal differences.