After Tripura drubbing, Sitaram Yechury speaks of joining forces with 'secular parties'; Kerala CPM may oppose idea

Kolkata: CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the country was passing through “challenging period” and that there was a need to form the “broadest platform” of secular and democratic forces to defeat the BJP-RSS’s “communal juggernaut”. His comment comes in the backdrop of the party’s humiliating defeat in Tripura, where the BJP-IPFT combine scripted history by winning two-third majority and ending 25 years of uninterrupted rule of the CPM-led Left Front. [caption id=“attachment_4334507” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of CPM leader Sitaram Yechury. News18[/caption] “The country is passing through a challenging period as the ruling BJP-RSS combine is trying to divide the nation on the basis of religion, caste and creed,” he said at the inaugural session of the 25th state conference of the party. Yechury advocated alternative policies to counter the BJP government at the Centre. The idea is to form the “broadest platform” of secular and democratic forces with alternative policies to defeat the BJP-RSS “communal juggernaut”, he said. Only alternative policies, not alternative political leader, can fight the ’neo-liberal and communal onslaught’’ of the BJP, he said. Alleging that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre was aggressively collaborating with the mechanism of profit maximisation, Yechury said the erstwhile Congress government had started it, but the NDA government was doing it “greater aggression”. “Demonetisation, introduction of GST and master planning FRDI bill have been executed to bail in the ruling class to serve the interests of international finance capital,” the CPM general secretary said. He said an aggressive communal strategy was replacing the study of Indian history with the study of Hindu mythology. Parliament and its bodies are being undermined, he added. The CPM West Bengal unit began its four-day state conference during the day to discuss the organisational aspects and the political-tactical line to be adopted at the party’s Congress next month. The state conference is all set to witness heated arguments and debates over the political-tactical line as a majority of leaders from West Bengal is in favour of adjustment with Congress in order to stop BJP. This has been vehemently opposed by the party’s Kerala unit along with Politburo member Prakash Karat, who is known as a hardliner in the CPM. The entire top leadership of CPM, including Karat and Brinda Karat, were present in the meeting besides Yechury. According to CPM sources, the party leadership will present its organisational report and discuss the draft political resolution that was adopted at the last central committee during the meeting. The CPM central committee had on 21 January voted against the draft political resolution put forward by Yechury proposing an alliance with the Congress, thus ruling out any form of electoral alliance or adjustment.