Conveying the central leadership’s displeasure to the Kerala unit over the recurring incidents of political violence involving partymen in the State, especially in Kannur, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said that political violence was not part of his party’s culture and that corrective steps would be taken if there were any “aberrations”.
“Political violence is not the culture of the CPI(M). Our culture is to defeat these forces, enemies of the people, through democratic ways… If there are aberrations, that will be corrected,” Yechury said in Thrissur while inaugurating the delegates’ session of the CPI(M)’s Kerala State conference being held in preparation for the 22nd Congress to be held in April.
Yechury’s statement has come at a time when the Kerala CPI(M) is being branded as a terror organisation by the RSS-BJP and Congress for the politics of murderous violence allegedly being pursued by Marxist gangs. The State is currently witnessing an intense Congress agitation over the murder of a Youth Congress leader in Kannur 11 days ago by a CPI(M) killer gang.
The CPI(M) General Secretary, however, made it clear that his party was duty-bound to protect its leaders and workers from the “class enemies”. Terming the RSS-BJP as the fountainhead of all political violence in the State, he said, “If you attack our comrades, our cadres, we will have to protect them. There will be efforts for defence and self-defence.”
Stating that the prime responsibility of the party presently was to strengthen the fight against the communalism being practised by the BJP which, he said, was destroying the country’s secular fabric. “We cannot compromise in our fight against communalism and neo-liberal economic policies,” the CPI(M) general secretary said.
Unleashing a scathing attack against the BJP-led NDA Government in the Centre and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the economic problems the country was presently facing, he said crony capitalism had become stronger after Modi came to power and that he had been rendered unable to raise his voice against those forces.