The CPM must take Congress along for stitching together a strong Oppn alliance

Teachers of yore used to recite a mantra from the Taittiriya Upanishad to their disciples: Satyam Vada, Dharmam Chara; Swaadhyayan Ma Pramaad (Speak the truth, abide by dharma and never be idle in your studies). Those who followed this verse in letter and spirit led a good, happy life. It seems the CPM, which recently held at Kannur its 23rd Party Congress, the triennial all-India congregation of party members, is yet to imbibe this advice. There is no need to search for an answer to the party’s stagnation. The CPM, which ruled three States at one stage, is now confined only to Kerala. Even its Kerala success can be attributed to the absence of a strong Congress leadership in the State. The political resolution introduced and discussed threadbare at the party congress is proof of its failure to make inroads into India’s hinterland. The party commissars have failed to identify the root cause of the CPM’s rot. While they lament about the growth and consolidation of “Hindutva Fascist forces” in the country, the leadership is clueless about means of preventing it. Allegations like communal-corporate nexus, imperialism, “legalising political corruption” and “imposing full-fledged authoritarianism” have lost their sheen.

It is time the comrades approached the people with a concrete action plan to defeat the “communal” elements. While the party welcomes an alliance featuring Left, secular, democratic and socialist forces to take on the “communal” party, it is silent on the role of the Congress in such an arrangement. No political force in India is capable of taking the BJP by the horns without the help of the ‘grand old party’. If the CPM is sincere in its efforts to defeat the BJP, it should forge an alliance under the leadership of the Congress. The INC is the only political party in the country which has not aligned even once with the so-called Hindutva forces. The Congress might have lost a few polls since 2014 but that is no proof of the party’s weakness. If there is one political entity in the country with a pan-India presence, it is only the Congress. The CPM, which has declared that it would “go to any extent” and “shake hands with even the devil” to forge an alliance against the BJP, should judge the ground reality well before venturing out to fight the “communal” BJP.