Hindutva' is making headway, says Prakash Karat

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM politburo member Prakash Karat on Saturday said the Hindutva communal consciousness or ideology has already made headway in many parts of the country and it is weakening the fight against neo liberal policies. Karat was delivering a lecture on Finance Sector: 25 years of Financial Reforms at the AKG Hall here.

“People are being motivated and moved by communal ideology. They are being told your enemy is not Capitalist but Muslims. In UP they are attacking the livelihood of lakhs of people by closing down the slaughter houses, not even allowing milk shops. Forget beef, they are even telling that eating meat is against Hinduism. Closing down of meat shops is part of preserving Hindu culture and Hindu beliefs,” he said.

He said the fight against Hindutva policies and neo liberal policies have to be integrated to go forward in the struggle. “We as Marxists believe that neo liberal polices cannot be reversed so we cannot go for an earlier form of Capitalism. The only way is to go forward to Socialism. For that we have an interim programme which will be an alternative programme,” he said.

He said only such a programme could take the country outof the present rut. “All over the world neo liberalism is in a crisis. I just mentioned Britain. Large number of people have started saying that this austerity, attacks on the livelihood and loss of jobs are because of the present system,” he said. He said the struggle in India was against the so called reforms in the financial sector which is at the heart of overall fight we have to wage against the neo liberal policies. “Politically we will be able to advance if we can combine this with the fight against Hindutva communal forces,” he said