CPM for issue-based support to Congress

CALCUTTA, Oct 5 (PTI) — In a marked departure from its earlier stand, the Communist Party of India (CPM) today offered issue-based support to the Congress in the "changed political situation" as it felt "the left parties alone cannot counter the BJP".

Introducing the draft political resolution at the 16th party Congress here, the General Secretary, Mr Harkishen Singh Surjeet, asked the Congress to change its policies and find out the reasons for its eroding mass base which gave the BJP the "advantage to come to power".

Speaking in the same vein, the veteran politburo member and West Bengal Chief Minister Mr Jyoti Basu, said the Congress is not a communal party.

"In the changed political situation, the CPM and the Left parties had greater responsibility in mobilising the forces which stood for secularism," he said.

The CPM, which at its Chandigarh Congress three years ago, had given the slogan of equidistant from the Congress and the BJP and called for defeating them so as to forge a third alternative, is set to thrash out a new tactical line which favours a softer attitude towards the Congress despite "basic differences in policies".

The draft political resolution said the forging of a third alternative is "still relevant", despite the setback suffered by two successive United Front governments at the Centre.

Mr Surjeet said the political significance of the Calcutta Congress lay in the fact that "the entire country has been eagerly looking at this meet — whether the CPM will provide some solutions to the challenges posed by the BJP".

He said there would be "open, sincere and detailed" discussion in the session since the party had already chalked out its strategy.

"Our tactical line will be determined in the party Congress," he said.

Both Mr Surjeet and Mr Basu made the BJP their sole target of attack saying the BJP-led government at the Centre has created "a mess" during its short stint in power by "blindly pursuing the economic liberalisation policy of the Congress, conducting nuclear tests to derive political mileage, starting the dangerous exercise for forming smaller states and spreading the venom of communalism."

In his hard-hitting speech, Mr Basu dubbed the BJP as "fundamentalist, communal, corrupt, opportunist and undemocratic", while Mr Surjeet said it was posing danger to national unity.

Mr Surjeet criticised the BJP-led government for encouraging regional forces and said bifurcation of existing states would only fuel more divisive and disruptive demands.

He accused the Vajpayee government of "surreptitiously and illegitimately" reversing the long-standing nuclear policy of the country and said it had made India more vulnerable to imperialist pressure.

"The nuclear policy of the BJP-led government is against the country’s long-standing foreign policy of non-alignment and peace and harms the relations with neighbouring countries," he pointed out.

He said the Vajpayee government’s offer to consider signing the CTBT signalled capitulation of imperial pressure. Besides, the coalition government had started the process to open up the country to imperialist finance capital in the name of resisting economic sanctions.

He said the ‘’belligerent’’ statements by the BJP-VHP-RSS leaders directed against Pakistan and on Kashmir had provided the opportunity for the western powers to internationalise the Kashmir issue.

By targeting China in his letter to Mr Clinton, Mr Vajpayee has put a brake on the process of normalisation of relations between India and China, he said.

Mr Surjeet said factionalism as also intrusion of "certain vices" in the party would be debated "threadbare" in the Congress and sounded a note of caution against such "unhealthy trends."

Calling for a check to such trends, he said differences inside the party would also be sorted out through "free, frank and open discussions."

The draft political resolution said sufficient attention had not been paid to build the party organisation and to streamline the organisational work.

"To be equipped to expand politically and organisationally the party must overcome the defects and shortcomings in its organisation and style of working," the draft resolution said.

The entire party, it said, had to be vigilant to ensure that "alien class-influences and harmful trends such as parliamentarianism, factionalism and erosion of communist values which had surfaced did not take root."

Mr Basu emphasised the need to expand the party into a mass revolution to achieve the "ultimate objective of people’s democracy and socialism."

The Basu-Surjeet strategy
From Shubhabrata Bhattacharya
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 5 — The CPM General Secretary, Mr Harkishan Singh Surjeet, and the party’s octogenerarian strongman, Mr Jyoti Basu, are the driving spirit behind the new, pro-Congress tilt in the outlook of their party. For backing a Congress government at the Centre, the party is also rooting for support from regional parties under the banner of a "Third Front".

Having pursued a blind anti-Congress line since the formation of the party after the 1964 split in India’s Communist movement, the CPM will find it difficult to overnight turn pro-Congress. However, sugarcoated in Marxist jargaon, the thrust of the party leadership’s message from Calcutta, where the 16th party congress began today, is loud and clear: There is no alternative before the CPM and the Congress but to shake hands with each other.

The Basu-Surjeet strategy is two-pronged. On the one hand the duo would like the CPM to give up its anti-Congress line; on the other it would like to revive the "Third Front" concept by uniting regional parties into an anti-BJP front.

In CPM’s politburo meeting held on the eve of the party congress yesterday, Mr Jyoti Basu was categorical in his assessment. "Backing the Congress is the political necessity and it is the only way we can counter the BJP. Whether the Congress likes it or not, we will do precisely this because this is the decision of the party. We do make a difference between the Congress and the BJP. The Congress, after all, is a secular party", he said.

Mr Basu disclosed that a dialogue was on with some Congress leaders and expressed the hope that the Congress would respond to his party’s "overture".

The politburo also discussed the strategy for building a third alternative at the national level. The party has already begun talks with the DMK and Mr Basu is scheduled to share a common platform with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Mr M. Karunanidhi, and address a rally at Chennai soon after the party congress gets over in Calcutta.

Significantly, while discussing the political strategy for uniting "like-minded parties", Mr Basu has gone on record in the politburo saying: "The Third Front will support a Congress-led government at the Centre".

It may be recalled that at the 15th party congress held at Chandigarh in 1995, the CPM had adopted a policy of equidistant from both Congress and BJP. The draft political resolution for the 16th congress which was introduced by Mr Surjeet today and will be discussed over the next few days describes the BJP as a party which is "devoid of any principles" and is "willing to court corrupt and criminal politicians in its cynical pursuit of power".

Pointing out that the results of the last Lok Sabha elections had shown that 63 per cent of the electorate had voted against the BJP alliance and recognising the fact that no single party could come to power on its own in the present circumstances, the draft political resolution says: "In the present situation, the struggle against the BJP-RSS combine and the communal forces assumes utmost importance." The fight against these forces is identified as the "central task" of the party.

The draft states: "In the present conditions, the struggle against the communal forces, their designs to disrupt the national unity and the democratic movement assumes importance. This can be done only on the basis of broad-based mobilisation. The efforts to forge and strengthen the third alternative, in electoral terms, will have to be renewed. While there is no question of an alliance or, united front with the Congress with its present policies, efforts must be made to reach out to its mass following which has a sizeable section of people adhering to secularism".

Significantly, the opening remarks of Mr Surjeet, while inaugurating the party congress, included an assurance for the party’s support to the Congress for forming an alternative government at the Centre.

The next five days, when the party debates the draft political resolution, will see a heated debate. The hardliners may be outnumbered but they will be vocal. Already, according to party sources, 4,344 amendments have been received to the draft resolution from the 687 delegates attending the meet. Never before have so many amendments been moved, according to these sources.

The party congress is likely to re-elect Mr Surjeet as the General Secretary for yet another term. Mr Surjeet was elected in the 14th party congress in 1992 held at Chennai (then known as Madras) and re-elected at Chandigarh in 1995.

CPI to support alternative govt

CALCUTTA, Oct 5 (PTI) — The Communist Party of India (CPI) today said it would offer issue-based support from outside to an alternative government at the Centre "in which the Congress will have to play a role" in the event of the collapse of the present BJP-led coalition.

"If the present BJP Government falls or is pulled down because of its inherent instability, the CPI will take a positive attitude to an alternative government, in the formation of which the Congress will have to play a role. The CPI will offer issue-based support to such a government from outside," the CPI General Secretary, Mr A.B. Bardhan, said here.

Addressing the 16th congress of the CPM, Mr Bardhan, however, ruled out a general alliance or front with the Congress, saying the party had failed to "undertake a serious review" of its economic policy at its recent camp at Panchmari.

Without such serious review of its economic policy, the Congress claims of fighting the "communal" BJP and its policies in various spheres, could not carry conviction. In this situation, there could be no question of entering into a general alliance or front with the Congress, the veteran CPI leader said.