The motto of the Left parties is clear. They are garnering the support of all the democratic forces, secular parties and civil society organisations to stop the BJP in its tracks in the 2024 general elections.
This is evident during the 27th State Conference of the CPI being organised in Visakhapatnam.
“Our objective is very clear — join hands to defeat the BJP,” D. Raja, CPI general secretary, said in an exclusive chat with The Hindu on Saturday.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah had stated that the BJP’s aim was to rule the country for the next 40 years, and this would spell doom for the nation, Mr. Raja said.
“The BJP-RSS combine has already spoken of ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’. It has been able to achieve it to some extent. And now, its focus is on ‘Opposition Mukt Bharat’. This is a dangerous thought process for any democratic country, especially for India,” Mr. Raja said.
‘Constitution under threat’
“The Constitution proclaims three aspects — India is a secular State, Indian State is a welfare State, and India is a union of States. If the BJP aims at ‘Opposition Mukt Bharat’, the Constitution is under threat, and the democratic and federal structure will be destroyed,” the CPI leader observed.
“The BJP-RSS combine is already propagating ‘One Nation - One Language’ and ‘One Nation - One Election’, and is making moves towards ‘One Nation - One Party’ and ‘One Nation- One Leader’. This is nothing but promoting a ‘leader cult’, which ultimately ends in dictatorship,” Mr. Raja opined.
Citing the Bhima Koregaon case, he alleged that the BJP-led Union Government was using the Central agencies to threaten and intimidate the opposition leaders.
“I had vociferously voiced concern against the British laws such as AFSPA and Sedition. To add to these draconian laws is the UA(P)A. There is no place for such laws in a democracy,“ he said.
‘Right extremism’
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi says that ‘Left extremism’ is the biggest threat. I would say that ‘Right extremism’ redefines the democratic fabric of our nation,” Mr. Raja said.
Mr. Raja is also of the opinion that the Congress party needs to redefine its objectives.
“There is no doubt that it is still the oldest and biggest secular political party. It needs to be realistic and accommodative. It must understand the current situation. Not only the Congress, it is time for every political party, including the Left parties, to introspect seriously. Only then can we instil hope and confidence in the people. If we could achieve it in 2004 by floating the United Progressive Alliance (UA), we can do it again in 2024,” he said.
“Now, we need to focus on basic livelihood issues such as price rise, employment, food security, health facility and education,” he opined.
