NEW DELHI, Feb 4: Outlining its direction in view of the “changed” political situation, CPI(M) today marked fighting the “right wing” offensive by carrying out political and ideological struggle against BJP-RSS combine as its main task, while also ruling out any truck with Congress.
With the Left party facing major electoral reverses, its Draft Political Resolution, to be presented at the 21st congress at Visakhapatnam in April, also emphasised on building “independent” strength of the party, while working actively to rally other left and democratic secular forces to form a front for united action.
“The party has to fight against the BJP and Modi government’s policies. This is the main task at hand. This requires a concerted opposition to Modi government’s economic policies and its Hindutva oriented social and educational policies.
“The party has to conduct a political and ideological struggle against the BJP-RSS combine. The fight against communalism cannot be conducted in isolation. It has to be integrated with the struggle against the neo-liberal policies and in defence of people’s livelihood,” the draft political resolution outlining the future political direction of the party said.
The party said that it will work actively to rally the Left and democratic forces. This, it said, can be done through the process of launching mass struggles and joint movements on the issues affecting people.
“There has been a major change in the political situation of the country after Lok Sabha elections. The resolution has characterised this change as right wing offensive under the Narendra Modi government.
“This is fuelled by two forces. One by aggressive push for neo-liberal policies and second the offensive of the RSS led Hindutva forces. Together they constitute right wing offensive which is detrimental for the interest of the people in our country,” CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters adding, that “the resolution’s main direction is how to fight this right wing offensive”.
Karat said that CPI(M) has “recognised” that it is under “serious” attack in West Bengal but dismissed opinions that his party’s base is continuously being eroded in the state. He alleged that the “opportunist politics” by Trinamool Congress has helped BJP make some headway.
The draft political resolution said that although the main direction of the struggle will be against BJP, the party will continue to oppose Congress as it is the UPA government’s “anti people” policies and corruption which helped the BJP to acquire popular support.
“The party will have no understanding or electoral alliance with Congress,” the resolution said.
Karat said, “This right wing offensive has another
dangerous dimension which is the threat of authoritarianism. That approach is seen in the way government is passing one ordinance after the other. It is also seen in the way government refuses and is intolerant of any views which are alien to the Hindutva outlook.”
He said that the draft political resolution also stresses on the “broadest mobilisation” of secular democratic forces against communal danger.
“In order to fulfil this task, first we have emphasised that it is necessary to build and strengthen CPI(M) as an all India force. We have had problems and suffered from reverses. So the main thrust is to strengthen the party because without a strong CPI(M) you cannot take on the fight against neo-liberal policies and communalism,” he said.
He said that with all these, the stress will also be on strengthening Left unity as the party has already started bring all Left forces together.
“We will cooperate with other democratic and secular forces on issues regarding people’s rights, defence of secularism and against communal forces,” he said.
The draft political resolution also points out that the Narendra Modi government government is aggressively going ahead
in strengthening and forging strategic ties with US.
“We have seen during US President Barack Obama’s visit the signing of joint vision strategy document on Asia-Pacific and Indian ocean.
“For the first time, an Indian government has signed on to US strategy for Asia. This shows the direction of foreign policy and our party will mobilise people against this pro-imperialist foreign policy,” he said.
Karat said that his party has “recognised” that it is under “serious” attack in West Bengal.
“I do not accept that the base is continuously getting eroded. Yes, there has been some erosion. We noted that. As far as BJP making inroads is concerned, it is all connected to the fact as to the type of politics Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and TMC have been playing. The type of opportunist politics by TMC has helped BJP make some headway,” he said. (PTI)
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