With the BJP emerging as a major challenge for Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she was ready to back formation of any “secular” front comprising even left parties to fight “communal forces.”
Mamata was in Delhi to attend a function organised by the Congress to mark the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of Jawaharlal Nehru on Monday. Top leaders of left parties, including Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury and D Raja along with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, NCP general secretary DP Tripathi and RJD leader Jaiprakash Yadav, attended the conference.
Talking to reporters after the conference, Mamata said the need of the hour was to fight the rise of the “communal” forces and called on all secular parties to come on one platform to protect the secular ethos of the nation.
“I have no problem in working together with them (the left) on issues like fighting communal forces. The BJP is ruling the country having secured only about 29 per cent votes.
The BJP won because regional parties were not united. If all regional forces join hands, the BJP will lose,” she said.
When asked if she supported the idea of a “secular” front that included the left also, she said: “I am a small person and a commoner. There are big people who can be leaders of such a front, but there must be an ideological alliance.”
Though Mamata evaded a direct reply on joining hands with the left in West Bengal, her guarded statement is seen as a first move towards reaching out to her arch-rival in the State where the BJP is slowly and steadily making big inroads into her domain.
The CPI(M), however, brushed off speculation on emergence of any anti-BJP group. “Nothing more should be read into our participation in the function organised by the Congress party,” Karat said. He said he was here since his party recognises the enormous contribution of Nehru to the making of a secular Indian State and his role in establishing a parliamentary democratic system. “This is a legacy we should all commemorate,” he said adding that “the Communists have been consistent opponents of the Congress’ rule.”
In Kolkata, CPI(M) State secretary and politburo member Biman Bose said his party would “not strike any deal with an outfit that had paved the way for communal forces in Bengal.”
“There is no question of joining hands with political parties like the Trinamool Congress which have no ideology, no policy and which paved the way for communal forces like the BJP to enter Bengal,”
Bose said when asked to comment on a hint of alliance dropped by the Chief Minister “to fight communal forces.”
Rejecting Banerjee’s proposals CPI(M) central committee member and MP Mohammed Salim said: “The Chief Minister is now trying to join the cause with us because she knows that her popularity has touched a nadir and that she will be routed in the elections as the BJP that she has brought to Bengal will gobble up her votes.”
Echoing Salim’s statements, State Congress president Adhir Chowdhury said: “Mamata Banerjee knows that the Frankenstein’s monster she created in the form of the BJP by communalizing State politics is now threatening her existence. So she is trying for a bigger alliance.”
In its reaction to Mamata cosying up to Congress and left leaders, the West Bengal BJP unit termed it as an act of desperation to save her political space. “Mamata Banerjee sharing the stage with Sitaram Yechury, who was Trinamool’s number one enemy and the Congress leadership, is nothing but desperation on the part of Banerjee to save her fast-depleting political space in Bengal,” BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said.
“No vested political alliance can stop the BJP from freeing Bengal from the Trinamool Congress’ misrule by 2016. As the idea of making India Congress-free by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been fulfilled, the idea of making Bengal Trinamool-free will also be fulfilled.
“All these political parties coming together under the garb of the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru, is nothing but a desperate attempt to save their own political space and identity,” Singh added.
While the left parties, which supported the UPA I Government led by the Congress had parted ways from it in 2008 on the Indo-US nuclear deal issue, Trinamool Congress left UPA II in September 2012. This was the first Congress event since then to be attended by Mamata as well as left parties.
While former Bihar Chief Ministers Nitish Kumar and lalu Prasad could not attend the conference, since they were busy in political rallies in Bihar and Jharkhand, their top leaders were amongst the delegates. However, SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati, who have been political partners of the Congress on the secular agenda, were conspicuous by their absence.
As the Congress sought to reach out to Opposition parties, in her opening remarks Sonia said: “Nehru’s ideas are under threat from misrepresentation and distortion, thus there is a compelling necessity for secularism in order to reassert Nehru’s legacy.”
Holding that secularism, a State neutral in matters of religion, respecting all faiths equally was an article of faith for Nehru, Sonia said: “There could be no India, without secularism. Secularism was and remains, more than an ideal, it is a compelling necessity for a country as diverse as India.”
She also said that Nehru’s belief that only Parliamentary democracy and a secular State could hold the country together in a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-linguistic and multi-regional society, has been proved right.
“Those who win should not allow this to go to their heads; those who lose should not feel dejected. The manner of winning or losing is even more important than the result. It is better to lose in the right way than to win in the wrong way,” Sonia said.
Former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai, John Kufuor of Ghana, General Obasanjo of Nigeria, former Prime Minister Madhav K Nepal of Nepal and Dorji Wangmo Wangchuk, Queen Mother of Bhutan, Pakistani rights activist Asma Jehangir, veteran South African freedom fighter Ahmed Kathrada and leadership delegations from 11 political parties across the world were present at the conference.
Hailing Nehru as great son of India, Karzai said that Nehru’s emphasis was that no one is left out from the social, political and economic change. Kufuor was all praise for the progress made by India since Independence and noted that it was the first Asian country to reach Mars. While Dorji said Nehru had a very special place in the hearts of Bhutanese people, Madhav Nepal said Nehru extended full support for the democratic and social advancement of his country. The two-day conference will conclude with a commemorative declaration on Tuesday and a speech by party vice president Rahul Gandhi.