Senior CPI-M leader and  Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday launched a scathing  attack on Congress, questioning its secular credentials and ability to hold together a broad alliance of secular and regional forces against the BJP, both at the national and state levels.

In an  article in the party mouthpiece, ‘Desabhimani’, published ahead of the 24th  state conference of CPI-M that begins in Kollam on Thursday,  Vijayan said secular forces could no longer trust the Congress.

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He pointed out that it was the Congress that had ensured the victory of the BJP in Delhi and Haryana.

“Congress claims that only they can resist the Sangh Parivar. But what is the truth? In the states of Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra, the farmer anger against Central policies significantly impacted the BJP in the last Lok Sabha elections and subsequent assembly elections. Despite this, it is Congress’s policy that brought the BJP to power in those places,”  Pinarayi Vijayan said in the article.

“In both 2015 and 2020, Congress failed to win even a single seat in the Delhi Assembly. Yet instead of focusing on defeating the BJP, Congress made its primary goal the defeat of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is the main Opposition force in Delhi. Congress leaders openly stated that helping AAP win was not their job,”  he alleged

He claimed that the Left has been at the forefront of resisting and exposing the anti-people policies of the Sangh Parivar-led central government , mobilising the public while also challenging the Congress’s claim of being the sole force capable of countering the BJP.

Pinarayi Vijayan  further claimed that from resisting bulldozers on Delhi’s streets to leading the legal battle against religious-based citizenship laws in the Supreme Court, the Left has been at the forefront of key struggles, including the historic farmers’ protest, the fight to restore Jammu and Kashmir’s statehood, and the challenge against the BJP’s corporate-funded Electoral Bond Scheme.

“At every stage, the Left has consistently been at the vanguard in defending India’s secular and democratic fabric from these relentless attacks,” he claimed in the article, and  urged secular parties, especially the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), to reconsider their alliance with the Congress.

Coming out strongly against the criticisms leveled against the Congress by Vijayan,  senior Congress leader  and Opposition Leader in the Kerala  assembly VD Satheesan said the only party that has compromised with the BJP is the CPI-M, the party of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Addressing a press conference here, Satheesan said that the Congress has always maintained an uncompromising stance against the Sangh Parivar.

“Where has Rahul Gandhi ever compromised with the BJP? It is Pinarayi Vijayan’s CPI-M that has made settlements with the BJP. The party that has compromised with the BJP is Pinarayi Vijayan’s party. While all other opposition parties in India, except CPI-M,  have taken a firm stance  that Narendra Modi’s government is a fascist government, the CPI-M is the only party that has taken a position saying the BJP is not a fascist party. The  stand taken by former  General Secretary Sitaram Yechury that the BJP is a fascist party, has now  been  rejected by the CPI-M,” Satheesan said

“While Opposition parties, including Congress, firmly call the Modi government fascist, CPI-M now claims it is not even ‘neo-fascist’ . Those who now claim the BJP is not fascist are the ones trying to lecture us,” Satheesan said.

Hitting out at the Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, KPCC president K Sudhakaran said that Pinarayi Vijayan echoes the BJP’s claim that secular parties cannot trust the Congress, and hence should be made an RSS pracharak.

“The Chief Minister, who is not able to call out the BJP as fascist, is relentlessly attacking the Congress, which leads the INDIA bloc,” Sudhakaran said. He also alleged that Pinarayi Vijayan became the Chief Minister with the BJP’s support and that all corruption cases, including the Lavalin case, were suppressed through a deal with the BJP.