CPI Party Leadership Must Focus More on Dalits and Youth

The CPI has been talking of broad-based unity of the anti-BJP forces including the Congress since the installation of the Narendra Modi Government at the centre in May 2014. In the last four years, the Party has been consistent in making efforts to rally the anti-BJP forces under one umbrella. Here’s a report, for Different Truths.

The Communist Party of India’s four-day 23rd Congress at Kollam in Kerala beginning April 26, has got a tough task in preparing the Party to be a prominent participant in the current battle of the opposition parties against the NDA government at the centre as also the saffron forces. The Party has been following the right political strategy among the left parties but the organisational weakness has hampered the Party in making the commensurate impact on the national politics. The CPI has been talking of broad-based unity of the anti-BJP forces including the Congress since the installation of the Narendra Modi Government at the centre in May 2014. In the last four years, the Party has been consistent in making efforts to rally the anti-BJP forces under one umbrella. The CPI(M) leadership was opposed to any understanding with the Congress earlier in the anti-BJP battle but now after the 22^nd Congress of the Party, the CPI(M) has come near the CPI position and that has facilitated the process of building a solid broad-based opposition unity against the BJP in the coming state assembly as also the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

For the CPI, the problem is despite taking a more pragmatic political line compared to the CPI(M) in the national politics, the CPI is getting less importance than the CPI(M) due to its organisational stature. The Party has lost bases in the last two decades in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. In 1967 elections, the first Lok Sabha elections, after the split in the CPI and the emergence of the CPI(M), the Party had more seats than the CPI(M) in the Lok Sabha. In the sixties and the seventies, the CPI had a solid base in many districts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but right now, the Party organisation is a pale shadow of the past. The Kollam Congress has to prepare the roadmap of the rejuvenation of the Party in the Hindi heartland since the political situation is opportune for the CPI to take a leading position along with the CPI(M) in the growing anti- BJP battle in the country.

The draft political resolution of the 23^rd congress has rightly focused on the Dalits and Adivasi’s and their struggles in the recent months. There has been a big awakening among the Dalits and the Adivasi’s in the years of the Modi regime. The BJP governments at both the centre and the states have been targeting the Dalits and the Dalits are also hitting back, sometimes in an organised manner and sometimes all of a sudden. The Left parties have to identify themselves with this struggle of the Dalits and the CPI has to extensively work among the Dalits to expand its organisation among the real downtrodden. As of now, the Dalits and Adivasi’s are the most deprived sections of our society. The fruits of development have bypassed them. Together the Dalits-16 percent, Adivasis-8.5 percent, and Muslims 16 percent make up about 40 percent of the population of India. The CPI has to fight the continuing discrimination against such a huge population by the BJP government and it has to be a part of the national struggle along with the other secular and democratic parties.

In the recent period, there has been good interaction between the Dalits and the left and this has covered the Dalit students. Last month, the CPI(M) organised big peasants march in Maharashtra with the participation of a large number of Dalits. This march has been successful and this has given a big boost to the peasant movement in other parts of the country. The farmers’ distress and the plight of the Dalits must top the agenda of the CPI and Kollam Congress must draw up effective action programme which can be followed in the next three years. The CPI has to play a pivotal role in uniting the peasant organisations in favour of continued mass actions in favour of the distressed farmers and the Dalits.

At the national level, the tasks are cut out and the CPI congress is expected to adopt the strategy of uniting the secular and democratic forces to face the challenge of the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections. The primary objective is to see that the BJP government is out of power at the centre after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and for that, all anti-BJP forces including the Congress have to be rallied. In the process, the left parties have to increase their strength in the coming Lok Sabha. The political resolution adopted by the CPI(M) at its Hyderabad congress has strengthened the line of Sitaram Yechury and that gives a big scope for the CPI and the CPI(M) to work together more closely in achieving the objective of cementing left unity and facilitating the process of all-pervading opposition unity to defeat the BJP in the coming elections.

The BJP and its mentor the RSS have been saffronising the executive and the institutions in the country by using power in the centre and in the states where they are ruling. This can be rebuffed only by removing them from power. So the elections have special significance for ensuring that. Both the CPI and the CPI(M) have to work at tandem to see that a foolproof strategy is adopted in consultations with the regional parties and the Congress to put one opposition candidate against the BJP in most of the seats. An understanding has to be reached that the anti-BJP votes should not be divided. This may not be possible in all the states due to the nature of state politics, but this should be ensured in 60 percent of the states to ensure the defeat of the BJP. For now, the national call is to throw out Narendra Modi from power at the centre in 2019 at any cost and both the CPI and the CPI(M) have to see that the call is transformed into reality.