The religious minorities have begun to rally around the secular-democratic space offered by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)], a fact discernible from the Assembly election results in Kerala, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has said.
The party, he said in an interview with The Hindu on the sidelines of the CPI(M) State conference here on Wednesday, believed that the answer to majority communalism wasn’t minority fundamentalism, but a secular democratic movement. “And our appeal to the minorities, and the other oppressed sections like Dalits, Adivasis and women, to join this space is evincing a good response. The process of consolidation is taking place,” he said.
Combating, isolating, and defeating the communal forces was of paramount importance for India’s Constitutional order and for the welfare of the people. The Left had been doing it unwaveringly wherever it was in a position do so. “That’s why even the BJP sees us as their arch-rival ideologically, politically, and organisationally,” he said.
On League
Mr. Yechury, however, refused to speculate on the Indian Union Muslim League’s (IUML) reported new-found interest in the Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala. “I would rather not comment on what other parties should do,” he said.
The CPI(M), he said, was working on strengthening the party organisation, for Left unity, for a coming together of the Left parties and other democratic forces and finally, for a broad platform of secular forces, which would include even the Congress, to take on the BJP at the national level.
But the Congress, which practised soft Hindutva and was getting weakened by the day with leaders crossing over to the BJP on a regular basis, could in no way provide a national alternative to the BJP. There were other secular parties like the Trinamool Congress resorting to the same undemocratic electoral practices and violence as the BJP.
“These are attacks on people’s democratic rights and civil liberties. The gruesome murder of Anish Khan in West Bengal is a pointer to the violence that we have been subjected to since the State government was formed by Trinamool Congress. Hundreds of our people have been killed and lakhs have been displaced. Then there are those regional parties that formed State governments but have supported the BJP in parliament. Despite their inconsistent stance towards the BJP, they all have to be part of a larger secular grouping in national interest,” he said.
Mr. Yechury said the CPI(M)’s strength shouldn’t be measured by the electoral yardstick alone. The party was able to mobilise and organise several people’s movements over the past few years. The ongoing State elections, he said, had the BJP on the back foot and that’s why the party was using its only weapon of communal polarisation. Citing the electoral debacle of the BJP in the most recent State elections, he said this formed a pattern and would show the way forward at the national level.
‘Nava Keralam’
On the CPI(M) in Kerala coming up with a ‘Nava Keralam’ vision document welcoming private investment, Mr. Yechury said the investment envisaged would spur production. In India, there was no bar on private investment. But when private investment comes, the State would see if it was beneficial and would set the terms for it. “There’s no ideological contradiction in this,” he said.
Mr. Yechury said that the party was bringing about a generational shift at all levels to be truly representative of the people.
