CPI to court new technology

KOLLAM: In a bid to attract more youth to the party, the CPI is going for a paradigm shift laying emphasis on new-age technologies. A new full-fledged party channel, weekly publication of the party magazine ‘New Age’ with nearly half of the content dedicated to young readers and usage of IT, including social networking sites as tools, are some of the concrete plans in the pipeline. The move follows after a sharp decline in the party membership in the country noticed with a drop of 17 per cent in the state alone from the past CPI state conference.Addressing the CPI conference here on Friday, deputy general secretary Sudhakara Reddy pointed out that the party should be extra vigilant against the fall in the number of membership. “The fall in the party membership is not because of political reasons,” said Reddy.He said that a conscious attempt should be made by the party to enrol more women, minorities, tribal communities and students. Reddy also mooted the idea of a full-fledged party channel with localised content from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It will be discussed in detail at the upcoming 21st CPI Congress, to be held in Patna from March 27 to 31. CPI leader Pannyan Raveendran said that drop in young members was a situation faced by all major parties.“With the advent of technology, even the revolutionary parties should change and we cannot close our eyes to this truth. The party will focus on enrolling more youth to the party using IT as a tool. The party will reach out to them using the new-age mediums, including social networking sites such as Facebook, which are hit among the youngsters,” he said.He also said that half of the content in the party magazines ‘New Age’ and ‘NavaYugam’, would be dedicated to young readers. “Also, out of 1,07,000 of party members in the state, the number of women members is just 17,180. The party wants to increase the number of woman members at least by 20-25 per cent,” he said while pointing out that in other states where the CPI has a foothold, the percentage of women membership is high. “In Meghalaya, it is 65 per cent,” he said.