CPI(M) leaders and workers will have to inform the party before accepting gifts from anyone, a decision in this regard was taken by the politburo.
A senior party leader said, the "lavish lifestyle" of some leaders and workers had been criticised inside the party for quite some time. The matter came to head after a photograph of Ritabrata Bandopadhyay, party's Rajya Sabha MP, wearing an Apple wrist watch was posted on social media.
Sumit Talukdar, a party worker had uploaded the photograph on his social media account. Infuriated over the incident, Bandopadhyay had called up the HR of the firm in Bengaluru where Talukdar works and asked them to take action against him. Neither the politburo nor the state committee approved of this and Bandopadhyay had to tender an apology.
The politburo has decided that before accepting any gift, the leaders and workers would have to inform the party and have to obtain the party's consent.
The leader said the lifestyle of many young comrades did not go with party ideology. "They wear costly kurtas priced more than Rs 2,000 and use costly perfumes and after-shave lotions. They wear costly jeans and all the products are made in the USA. There are party leaders who cannot put on decent shirts and always go for branded ones. Many of them smoke costly foreign cigarettes too."
The old guards said the young leaders had failed to attract young people. The party had decided to start classes recently but had to discontinue due to shortage of students and young people. The party's local and zonal committees throughout the state had virtually become defunct and no attempt has been made to revive them.
They said leaders like EMS, Harekrishna Konar, Jyoti Basu, Snehangshu Kanta Acharya had hailed from well-to-do families but their sacrifice had attracted hundreds of workers and leaders throughout the country.