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Common struggles needed for third alternative: CPI

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Wednesday said that an alternative to the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can emerge only through joint struggles by the Left and secular democratic parties on people’s issues.

Stressing that the core of Left unity has to be the cooperation between and united action of the CPI and CPI (M), the CPI was of the view that it was necessary to move towards “communist unity” on a principled basis as it was the only way to make a decisive breakthrough in the country’s politics and take it towards a socialist future.

Releasing the draft political resolution, two months ahead of the party’s 20th congress to be held in Hyderabad, general secretary A. B. Bardhan said that some parties were trying to forge a “Third Front,” opposed to the Congress and the BJP, and formed the United National Progressive Alliance. “We are interacting with them so that they [can] join in the common struggle for evolving a programme-based alternative,” he told reporters.

The 56-page draft political resolution, approved at the party’s national council meeting in Chennai last week, will be discussed before being adopted at the party’s 20th congress.

On Sunday, the CPI (M) had released its draft political resolution which also dwelt at length on the possibility of forging a non-Congress, non-BJP “third alternative.”

It noted that a Left and democratic alternative programme should be committed to defending India’s independence and sovereignty, conducting an independent foreign policy, supporting multilateralism in world politics and opposing unilateral, aggressive moves of U.S. imperialism.

Taking note of the importance of regional parties in forging a Left and democratic alternative, Mr. Bardhan said the CPI and other Left parties would have to persuade and associate them in the common struggle on economic issues.

Asserting that the CPI would keep the BJP out and relentlessly combat its communal and reactionary policies, Mr. Bardhan said the party would strengthen the Left and draw the centrist forces for a leftward shift.

Arguing in favour of more frequent and regular consultations between the two communist parties and generally among the Left parties to plan joint movements and actions, the CPI was critical of the “unilateral way” that the largest partner in the Left Front ruling West Bengal — the CPI(M) — had dealt with the situation in Nandigram, “without consulting and taking the other partners into confidence.”

One of the lessons underlined by Nandigram was that the Left Front government “has to function as a government of Front, and not as a one-party government and the unity of the Left Front has to be strengthened, as it will have to face greater challenges,” the draft resolution said.

Referring to the United Progressive Alliance government’s performance, the CPI accused it of drifting away from the Common Minimum Programme and ignoring pro-people measures which had shaken the people’s confidence.

“It is removing the very basis of the Left support to it. The soaring prices of all essential commodities are affecting the common people. It is not the nuclear deal alone which is taking the situation almost to a breaking point. In equal measure, and perhaps more, it is the price rise, the anti-people economic policies, the cynical unconcern about the agrarian crisis and the grim spate of farmers’ suicides which are resulting in growing disenchantment and conflicts,” it said.

The CPI said it had warned that there was a need to review the performance of the UPA government and redefine the Left’s attitude. “Left support should no longer be taken for granted. We did not insist on any Left agenda, but on what has been agreed to by the UPA itself. But the Congress is nostalgically dreaming of a return to the days when it wielded a monopoly of power,” the draft resolution said.

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