The Hindu : Cong. policies blamed for BJP's growth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2003

National

National

Cong. policies blamed for BJP's growth

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 11. The Left parties today hit back at the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's charge that these parties were responsible for the advent of the BJP. They said that it was the "faulty policies of the Congress" which were responsible for the BJP's growth.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) said it was in the forefront in the fight against communal forces as compared to the Congress.

"Our record shows who has been effectively fighting the BJP," said the CPI(M) politburo member, Prakash Karat. There was no trace of the BJP in the States ruled by the Left as compared to those in which the Congress was in power.

He charged that it was the Congress policy of "compromising with communal forces" that had allowed the BJP to gain strength.

The CPI national secretary, Atul Anjaan, said Ms. Gandhi's remarks showed that instead of viewing things in the national perspective she kept her party's interest in mind and this varied from State to State.

The Congress had been in a "dilemma" over fighting both the communal and casteist forces. The party had not been able to express itself clearly in various issues such as permitting "shilanyas" at Ayodhya in 1989 by the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, the Shahbano case or the latest experiment with Hindutva during the Gujarat Assembly elections, Mr. Anjaan said.

He said the Congress was directly responsible for bringing the BJP-led Vajpayee Government to power at the Centre by withdrawing support to the United Front Government in 1997.

The All-India Forward Bloc, another Left constituent, was more strident, with the party secretary, G. Devarajan, charging that the Congress did not have the "moral right to speak about communalism". "In fact, they are responsible for the rise of the BJP," he said in a statement.

Besides helping the "BJP and the Sangh Parivar to demolish the Babri Masjid, they now have made an electoral alliance (in Tripura) with the INPT, the political outfit of the NLFT, a banned extremist organisation that is engaged in killing the poor Left-Front activists in Tripura. The soft-communalism of the Congress in Gujarat helped the BJP come to power again,'' he said.

Going a step further, the AIFB said the communist parties should realise the character of the Congress while sharing the platform and forging an alliance with it.

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