Left leader suggests 'secular, democratic' front, including Cong, to defeat BJP-RSS

Anguished over the tussle between the Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat camps within the CPI(M), an All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) leader has suggested that a worker-farmer alliance and a Left and democratic front should unite all the secular and democratic forces in the country, including the Congress, to defeat the BJP.

In an article published in the latest edition of CPI(M) organ "People's Democracy", K Krishnaprasad, an office-bearer of the AIKS, the farmers' wing of the party, has tried to find a middle path, keeping in mind the political lines of both the Karat and Yechury camps.

However, he has also mentioned that under no circumstances should the leadership of the front be conceded to the Congress.

"The worker-peasant alliance and a Left and Democratic Front can work as a thread to unite all secular and democratic forces, including the Congress, and ensure the consolidation of all the anti BJP-RSS votes to make sure the defeat of the (Narendra) Modi government as well as take up the challenges that India faces toady.

"Hence, the basic issue is not the correlation of the Left with the Congress party, but the leadership role of it in the vast alliance against the BJP, which is controlled by the fascistic RSS," Krishnaprasad has written in the article.

The leader from Kerala has described the recent farmers' agitations in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka as "victorious struggles" of the trade unions against privatisation, adding that these movements have shown that the Left organisations can mobilise "millions of toiling" people not only in Tripura, Kerala and West Bengal, but even in the Hindi heartland.

The leader, who is scheduled to attend the party congress in Hyderabad from April 18-22, has said that the need of the hour is to remain united against the BJP-RSS and revive the party's struggle among the Dalits, farmers and workers.

"A consensus needs to be built, so that there is no deviation in the party and it remains united. I have pointed out that only through a struggle, we can first revive the party in Bengal and then, all over the country," Krishnaprasad told PTI.

Though the majority of the Kerala unit of the CPI(M) supports the line of maintaining an equal distance with both the BJP and the Congress, Krishnaprasad's article hints at a softening of stance as regards the Congress.

Interestingly, after the Central Committee meeting last month, the party had given a call to defeat the BJP in the May 12 Karnataka Assembly polls and announced its decision to support the "strongest candidates" to defeat the saffron party, besides fielding its own nominees in 18-19 seats.

It meant extending support to the Congress nominees, wherever required.

The hardliners in the party, who had earlier strongly advocated the line of having "no understanding with the Congress", had even said that though the CPI(M) would not take the name of any particular party during the campaign for the seats where it would not field its own candidates, it would give an open call to defeat the BJP in Karnataka.

According to a party insider, the decision clearly indicates that the Karat camp has softened its stance after the Uttar Pradesh by-elections, where a united SP-BSP wrested two Lok Sabha seats from the BJP.

Krishnaprasad's article provides an insight into the growing feeling within the party that a united Left should independently assert its political leadership to facilitate an alliance of all the secular and democratic forces and bring together all sections of the society, including progressive groups and individuals.

"Without any political understanding or electoral alliance with the Congress, the united Left can extend cooperation to it to ensure the defeat of the BJP, wherever there is a direct fight (between the two parties)," Krishnaprasad has observed.

He has also cautioned the party that accepting the Congress' leadership for the alliance against the BJP-RSS will not help the struggle against the dual menace of neo-liberal and communal forces.