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Congress needs to work harder to combat communalism : CPI(M)

	December 24, 2007

The CPI(M) has said that the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre needs to work harder to combat communalism. The party has warned that imperialism is an equal threat to the Indian polity, implying that there is no softening of the party’s stand on the nuclear deal. Senior party leader Sitaram Yechury, speaking at the end of the three-day meeting of the CPI(M) central committee in New Delhi said on Dec. 22 that the Gujarat Assembly poll outcome would

have no impact on the CPI(M)’s stand on the nuclear deal and the party would continue to oppose it.



Yechury said that the nuclear deal has many clauses that are not in the interest of the country. Another politburo member M.K. Pandhe said

whatever might be the outcome of the Manmohan Singh Government’s talks with the International







Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on India-specific safeguards, the party would not allow operationalisation of the nuclear deal.



Asked about Central Committee review of the UPA government’s performance, Yechury said the assessment would come out in the draft political

resolution being finalised by the party for its 19th Congress to be held at the end of March next year. He said changes suggested by the central committee

would be incorporated in the draft resolution.



Anti-communist forces, media conducting smear campaign on Nandigram



A statement issued by the CPI(M) at the end of the central committee meeting said that a section of the media and anti-communist political forces were

conducting a smear campaign against the party by raking up murder, rape and arson in Nandigram to defame it. It said: “An illustration of this smear

campaign is the spate of media reports attributed to the CBI about the incidents on 14 March. What is being cited is not the CBI’s conclusion after investigations, but the complaints lodged, and the deposition of persons in this connection”.



The statement read that the CBI was yet to submit its report to the High Court on Nandigram, and had asked for two months time to finish the job. The party

said “vested interests” were targeting the CPI(M) since it was in the forefront of opposition to a strategic

alliance with the US and firmly against “neo-liberal policies which harm the interests of the working people.”



CPI(M) may retain open approach towards Congress



Reports say that the draft resolution provides that the CPI(M) will keep its options open in the

scenario after the next Lok Sabha polls, just like it did

the last time. There is unlikely to be any pre-poll

alliance with the Congress.



The draft resolution, sources say, criticises the

Congress for pursuing what it calls “discredited

economic policies” initiated in 1991. But it again

reiterates the CPI(M)’s tactic of mobilising secular forces

to keep the BJP out of power.



With there being no possibility of emergence of

a viable third front in the immediate future, the party

feels that having an understanding with the Congress

is the only way out to target the BJP.



The resolution, sources say, expresses its

disapproval of the UPA government foreign and

economic policies pursued since 2004. The Government

is also likely to come under attack for what the party

calls “non-implementation of the recommendations of

the Sachar Committee on the status of Muslims.



Reviewing the Nandigram developments, the

Central Committee noted: “With the return of people

from all sides to their homes, normalcy is returning to

the block which was under the occupation of the forces

behind the so-called Bhoomi Uchhed Prathirodh

Samiti for 11 months. The state administration is taking

steps to provide relief and rehabilitation.



“It is unfortunate that the remains of five persons

killed have been dug up to concoct charges against

the CPI-M. The fact is that all the five persons whose

names have been given, are actually supporters of the

party who died in a bomb blast in a refugee camp in

October.



CPI poll warning



CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan has said midterm

polls were possible next year but the Left should

not be blamed. “If the Prime Minister fails to address

the issues raised by us with regard to the nuclear deal,

there will have to be a mid-term poll,” he said in

Krishnagar, about 85km from Calcutta, on Dec. 22.