A public event that marked the culmination of the five-day 23rd party congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] on Sunday turned out to be a show of strength of the party’s State unit as well as the district unit that hosted the conference.
Addressing a large gathering, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who presided over the event, said there was no going back on launching development projects no matter what happened. He said the people had given a mandate for this.
Mr. Vijayan claimed that there were no differences of opinion between the Kerala State committee and other State committee over development issues. The party congress had given a go-ahead to the government for launching projects that would improve the lives of the people, he said.
Referring to the SilverLine semi-high-speed railway project, he said the environmental concerns over the project had already been addressed. “It will reduce carbon emission. Do those who oppose the project have anything else to say? We are not among those who neglect ecological concerns and be stubborn about development,” he said. The Chief Minister criticised a section of the media, which, he alleged were hell bent on painting the CPI(M) and it’s government in bad light.
Lakhs of people started flocking the venue from the evening itself. Traffic was blocked on the main roads to streamline the movement of vehicles. A 2,000 member volunteer march was taken out from the venue of the congress at the E.K. Nayanar Academy in the cantonment area to the Jawahar Stadium. Party leaders Sitaram Yechury, Mr. Vijayan, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, and Subhashini Ali were taken to the stadium in open four-wheelers.
Opening the event, Mr. Yechury said that though the party was seeking a coming together of secular forces to unseat the BJP government at the Centre, some of them did not respond to the call positively. He alleged that though Congress leaders too were invited to speak at seminars on federalism, secularism and democracy, organised as part of the meet, that party was found threatening them with disciplinary action. “The Congress should decide where does it stand on such issues,” he added.
