The Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] on Sunday invited Congress workers “disgruntled” with their party’s “ambivalent stance” on the Palestine question to set aside provincial politics and line up with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) to voice solidarity with the victims of Israel’s “genocidal” war in the besieged Gaza province.
Speaking to reporters after a State committee meeting on Sunday, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan sought to isolate the Congress in the UDF over the highly emotive Palestine issue and erode the party’s political standing among minorities, especially in north Kerala.
Mr. Govindan said Congress “punished” Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) general secretary Aryadan Shoukath and his loyalists for rallying behind Palestine. He said the Congress dissuaded the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML)from participating in the LDF’s pro-Palestine rally in Kozhikode on November 11.
Mr. Govindan said Congress Working Committee (CWC) member Shashi Tharoor “echoed his party’s outlook” by terming Palestine resistance “terrorism”. The UDF was a divided house rocked by internal contradictions. Congress’s “anti-Palestine stance” had deepened the fissures.
He said the backlash would come from within the Congress. “For one, Congress veteran Mani Shankar Iyer participated in a seminar connected to LDF’s Keraleeyam festival, ignoring his party’s diktat,“ he said.
Mr. Govindan denied that the IUML had burned bridges with the CPI(M). He said both parties were in lockstep on the Palestine and Uniform Civil Code issues and the Constitutional cause of secularism. “The IUML had merely cited a technical difficulty in participating in the LDF’s pro-Palestine rally while being an Opposition ally. The event is in Kozhikode. The public outpouring of sympathy for Palestine at the rally would surely transcend political lines,” Mr. Govindan said.
Mr. Govindan sought to put the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the same page on the Palestine issue. He said the Narasimha Rao government cast aside Congress’s pro-Palestine line and opened diplomatic ties with Israel. The BJP merely inherited the Congress’s “pro-Israel and anti-Palestine legacy”. In many ways, Mr. Govindan alleged, the Congress was the BJP’s ideological and political echo chamber in Kerala.
Mr. Govindan denied the CPI(M) was using the Palestine cause as a pretext to harvest political allies. “The CPI(M) is not scouting for new alliance partners. But history does not stop, and change is the only thing that does not change,” he said.
