The CPI (ML) Liberation has stressed on the need for a broader unity among Left parties and other secular forces to defeat the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre in the Parliamentary elections of 2019.
“We have an understanding with the Left parties in Bihar and in some other states. Our idea is to work for a broader unity of the Left parties and other secular forces in the coming Assembly polls in the different states and the general elections of 2019. Efforts should be made so that the anti-Narendra Modi votes can be utilised effectively. We wish for a united struggle and stand by the people in their fight for land rights, implementation of the Minimum Wages Act in the tea plantations, crisis of farmers, unemployment and other issues,” party general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya told The Statesman here on Tuesday.
The party has reached an understanding with the CPIM in Bihar to contest the Parliamentary polls as one bloc. Both the party had contested the 2015 Assembly elections together.
“We are in the process of exploring whether there is a possibility of a broad-based unity with secular forces to contest the polls. The unity of Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party yielded positive results in Gorakhpur, Phulpur, Kairana and Noorpur by-elections in Uttar Pradesh and that has showed the mood of the country,” Mr Bhattacharya said.
The leader, however, said it would be too premature to say whether they would forge a pre-poll alliance with the CPI-M.
“The Left parties are fighting together in states like Bengal and Tripura, where they are under attack. Though the CPI-M needs to take corrective measures, especially people had grievances when it was in power in both the states, we are hopeful of a consensus– whether it be a pre or post-poll alliance (with Left parties) or whether it be a Federal Front or the Left democratic front in the next few months,” he added.
He raised questions on efforts made by chief minister Mamata Banerjee to float a Federal Front to counter the NDA government.
“Democracy is at stake in Bengal, so how can she talk about democratic values? How can she lead the Front to defeat a government at the Centre?,” he said.
Mr Bhattacharya said lynching had become a hallmark of the Narendra Modi regime. “The spate of lynching has defined the mark of the Modi government, and the trend is new in the country. Union home minister Rajnath Singh had cited the 1984 anti- Sikh riots as the biggest lynching on the floor of the Lok Sabha. Such statements are immature. Modi raj is a mob raj, Hindustan has been transformed into lynchistan, and democracy has turned into mobocracy,” he said.
Mr Bhattacharya also said that all the promises made by the BJP in 2014 have turned out to be a big failure. “The whole country has had enough of the BJP. The four years of the Narendra Modi rule has become a big eye opener, and it came as a huge shock. Hoping for positive changes, end to corruption, opportunities for employments and solutions to the agrarian crisis, people had voted Modi and not supported the communal agenda, but the people were badly let down, they were cheated. People had voted against the Congress to get rid of the Emergency. Now the time has come that people vote to end the horror of tyranny of the Modi government,” he said.
Mr Bhattacharya addressed a seminar organised by the Darjeeling district unit of the party on ‘Karl Marx in today’s context’. He said the concept of Karl Marx on capital was very relevant.
CPI-M state committee member and district party secretary Jibesh Sarkar said Marxism was the only way to defeat fascist forces at a time when the world was influenced with rightists forces.
Mr Sarkar also said the theories of Marx should not be confined in discussions, but implemented. Academician and social activist Prof Ajit Roy also delivered his speech.