New Delhi: The five-day refresher course organized by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM for its senior leaders from the state units ended on Thursday, at a time when the party leadership has repeatedly expressed worry over growing ideological and political degeneration of its cadre.

The refresher course, a regular affair which is organised once in a couple of years, aims at educating party leaders on its ideology as well as various aspects of party policy. ”We keep organising such educational programmes at various levels. This time it was for state committee leaders. The idea is to educate them on various issues like the current political situation, the international situation, the party ideology etc,” said CPM politburo member M.K. Pandhe, who was among those who gave lectures to the state leaders.

The five day course was attended by 130 state leaders and there was one three hour lecture each day followed by an over two hour question and answer round. “We gave them lectures on five topics which included imperialism and the world in the post cold war era, the Indian economy, the challenge of identity politics, the present political situation and organizational matters including rectification,” said politburo member S. Ramachandran Pillai.

The central committee of the CPM has recently approved a rectification document to bring about icourse correction in the party based on ideological, political and organizational guidelines. Apart from Pandhe and Pillai, party general secretary Prakash Karat and senior politburo member Sitaram Yechury also gave lectures during the study course.