These people challenged the programmes of the party and opposed policy dicisions on participation in parliamentary democracy and government. They struck at the roots of a Marxist-Leninist party; unity, discipline and democratic centralism were given the go-by.

These opportunists dubbed our party programme as revisionist and termed the Indian government as neo-colonialist. They said that the land was under a "puppet regime" and the petty bourgeoisie were in power with the help of imperialists.

The Calcutta congress of 1964 debated this line and rejected it. These people believed that the bourgeoisie did not have any power of their own and were led by the imperialists. This was a wrong evaluation.They were also incorrect in their belief in that they thought that the government was a puppet regime; what they forgot was no such government could possibly have such a huge public support as had been evident in successive elections. According to them, the government had been totally alienated from the people and was being despised by the general public. The prevalent class structure was totally ignored and the need for a peoples' democratic front was not made out strongly. This wrong assessment led them to believe that armed revolution was the only way out and that it was just a matter of time.

Driven by recklessness, these Leftists were blind to the difference between parliamentary democracy and Fascism. As a natural consequence, instead of following Lenin’s ideal of using all parliamentary institutions as weapons for greater struggle, these extremists said that any sanction for parliamentary democracy was an assertion of revisionism.

For them, all non-Congress ministries were revisionist by nature. Participation in elections were also wrong. They also rejected the concept of the United Front and the need for an alternative government. All strategies and policies were dubbed as greed for parliamentary power but, in effect, they only served to push back and ignore a major dimension in the Left movement.

We had proved the hollowness of these arguments at that time; not only that, we had also said that these people would only serve to alienate the people from the party. The central committee meeting of the CPI(M) in August 1967 which was held in Madurai detailed the party position on these aberrations. The central committee statement said,

‘‘This is nothing but an aberration borne out of anarchy which is only serving to lighten the struggle against the system. This has no relation or similarity to Leninism and serves to convert the people and the labour class into mute spectator. Slogans are being raised which will alienate not only the party but the people too from the elections and leave the people to the mercy of the Congress and other bourgeoisie parties. The significance of the defeat of the Congress, the formation of alternative governments in various states, the movement of the people towards the party and the exposure of the real face of the bourgeoisie parties have been ignored in the name of revolution. Any compromise with this line of thinking would mean sabotaging the very efforts towards which the party has been working; this strategy can never take the party forward and instead can only serve to delink it from the masses. Nothing is being said about the present level of consciousness among the people nor is any effort being made to clear the confusion among the masses about the character of the state and its machinery.’’

The statement also said, "A narrow viewpoint is being accepted as a larger strategy. There is no line of thinking on how to unite the labour class and create political consciousness. At the same time, they are also silent on how to push forward the struggle of the farmers and their uplift which are supposed to from the basis of this ‘Revolution’. They are only paying lip service to the cause of the farmers. This has unfortunately come at a time when the party is trying its utmost to take the people's movement forward and pursuing an active policy. Those who are following the line of extremism are trying to establish that the party line is wrong... They are not realizing that state terrorism cannot be fought without an unified movement and an organized labour sector. Ignoring this aspect would mean giving into opportunism and extremism followed by some people who do not belong to the mainstream of the labour struggle.’’

In reality, these opportunists were only trying serving to prevent the unity of the labour class and the people at large and ignore the major tasks of fighting against the prevalent anti-people system and policies. While ignoring the need to establish mass organizations and fight for the rights of the labour and farmer classes, some people indulged in the worst form of extremism and sought to put an end to the people’s movement in the name of revolution. They felt that mass organizations had no role left to play and that the people's victory would come only through so-called revolutionary steps and activities. Moreover, Marxism-Leninism has never ever based its philosophy on such premises. This was a totally wrong understanding.

Naturally, these "revolutionaries," through their irresponsible statements and actions only harmed the cause of the people's unity and helped the Congress in its fight against democracy. Like the revisionists who had helped the rightists in the campaign of opportunism, so also did the Left recklessness come to the aid to reactionaries and only harmed the struggle that the CPI(M) had undertaken against the anti-national and anti-democratic rule of the by the Congress. Our party was the main target now since for them, the United Front government was more reactionary than any Congress regime. Individual killings and terrorism began on a much larger scale and the unity of action and spirit between the Congress and these "revolutionaries" was now apparent, both of them were ranged against us.