Date:17/12/2002 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2002/12/17/stories/2002121705431100.htm

National

Left concerned over BJP's aggressive communal posture

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI DEC. 16. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) today expressed the apprehension that the "aggressive" communal posture adopted by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh during the Gujarat election campaign "portend similar efforts being made in the rest of the country'' by the BJP.

However, the outcome also brought to the surface differences within the Left parties, with the All- India Forward Bloc questioning the credibility of the CPI (M) and the CPI in criticising the Congress, which lost the elections. The people of Gujarat had rejected the party's slogan of development and progress as they did not find any difference between the Congress and the BJP on this count, the AIFB said.

"The CPI (M) and the CPI have also lost their face to criticise or analyse the election in true perspective due to their alliance with the Congress for contesting a seat each. In fact, both the communist parties have gained nothing but lost credibility," the AIFB general secretary, Debabrata Biswas, said in a statement. It was time the secular, progressive and Left forces realised the gravity of the situation and came forward to mobilise the masses against the "communal and corrupt'' forces to emerge as an alternative to the Congress and the BJP.

Analysing the election outcome, the CPI (M) politburo said the BJP strategy was to divert attention from the harmful effects of its economic policies and misrule at the Centre. "Notwithstanding the shrill rhetoric against terrorism indulged in by the BJP, minority-baiting and communal chauvinism can only nurture extremism and fundamentalist forces within the minority community,'' the party said. It attributed the BJP's success to "deep communal polarisation" which had been brought about by the large-scale violence after the Godhra incident. The party viewed the third successive electoral victory for the BJP as an affirmation of the "systematic efforts" of the RSS-VHP combine to communalise the polity in the State.

The CPI (M) said important lessons should be drawn from the Gujarat results. One, that the failure of the Congress and other secular parties to arrive at a common understanding to ensure a one-to-one fight had helped the BJP register such a big win. Secondly, the Congress, as the main opposition force, had underplayed the BJP's communal agenda in Gujarat and avoided confronting it.

"This helped the communal forces to legitimise their disruptive propaganda.'' There was a need to conduct a sustained and effective struggle against the communal ideology.

"There has to be an uncompromising struggle against the Hindutva agenda which masquerades as nationalism and to expose its pro-imperialist and reactionary character,'' it said.