The CPI(M) today said it is ready to join hands with with anti-BJP secular parties as its priority is to oust the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
"The party's primary task is to oust the BJP-led NDA government, which is in the interest of the country and its people," CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said at a news conference here on the sidelines of the party's Punjab state committee meeting.
To fulfil this task, he added, the CPI(M)'s electoral alliances will be such that there is least possible split of anti-BJP votes.
The Left party leader said the CPI(M)'s state committees will take a call on the kind of understanding required with all the anti-BJP secular parties.
Asked if his party would enter into an understanding with the Congress in Punjab, Yechury replied, "We have not started any discussions with the Congress in Punjab yet..but we would like to defeat the SAD-BJP (combine)."
He asserted that unlike a Presidential system, policies are more important than a face in a Parliamentary democracy like India and alleged the BJP was trying to divert people's attention from what mattered.
"The point is that they (BJP) want to divert the attention to the face and we want to bring the attention back on the policies," he said.
Whenever any other government came to power, there was always a common minimum programme and it will come again, Yechury added.
Speaking about the opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government, which will be discussed in the Lok Sabha tomorrow, he said the nation needs to know what all is going wrong in the country under this government and the discussion will highlight all that.
Yechury said the Left parties will be supporting the August 9 nationwide call for a 'jail bharo' agitation given by trade unions, kisan sabhas and agriculture workers' unions over issues like farmers suicides, minimum support price (MSP) rates and loan waiver, among others.
He said the farmers needed to be given a one-time debt waiver and MSP according to the C2 formula or the comprehensive cost and not what was recently announced by the Centre.
The government hiked the MSP for paddy by Rs 200 per quintal earlier this month.
If the Centre is really interested in saving Indian agriculture and bringing it out of distress, then it will have to come up with a comprehensive debt waiver policy, Yechury said.
He said a comprehensive loan waiver by the UPA government had helped revive agriculture and stopped or reduced farmer suicides, adding that no state government can tackle this crisis alone because the dimension is very, very grave.
When asked about the recent spate of incidents of mob lynching in the country, Yechury stressed on the need for a strict law.
"A law is necessary, earlier we thought existing laws would be sufficient. But the question is who will implement the existing laws. If the implementing authorities, that is the state governments, themselves are patronising such private armies, then you require a new law, which will be able to take care of this."
He alleged that all incidents of mob violence took place in the BJP-ruled states and questioned the party's implementation of the law.
The CPI(M) general secretary also said the Left parties had given a call for a 'National Protest Day' on July 24 to highlight the increasing incidents of political violence in West Bengal and Tripura.
The democracy has virtually been reduced to a farce by the murderous and heinous attacks, he said.
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