Rift on Congress pact to mark central committee meet

Thiruvananthapuram: On the eve of the three-day CPM central committee meet beginning in Kolkata, the factions led by Sitaram Yechury and Prakash Karat have toughened their stand on the issue of tie-up with Congress.  CPM general secretary Yechury clarified that central committee had not entrusted the politburo to prepare the document on political tactical line. It had only asked PB to make efforts to prepare the document. The CC meet will decide whether the positions taken by the two factions should be taken to the forthcoming party Congress in Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, Karat faction has stuck to its position that there should be no understanding with the Congress.  Even though the party considers BJP-RSS as the enemy No 1, the faction is totally against any truck with the Congress to defeat the ‘communal and fascist’ forces. The Karat faction wants the issue to be settled at the central committee even if by putting it to vote. It believes that since there is no precedent of carrying divergent views to the party Congress, the political tactical line has to be approved at the level of CC before being adopted in Hyderabad. However, Yechury and Bengal comrades favour cooperation with all secular and democratic parties including Congress to fight the communal and fascist agenda of Narendra Modi-led BJP Government.  

Though the Karat faction claimed that CC meeting in October 2017 had approved the politburo outline which firmly opposed to any form of  tie- up with the Congress, Yechury had clarified that PB outline was never approved. It was only to facilitate the drafting of the resolution. Yechury faction has pointed out that the CPM was waging a war against BJP-RSS communal politics; neo-liberal economic reforms; subverting parliamentary democracy and educational and cultural institutions and their abject surrender to US imperialism. It believes that the current political fight is against the four pronged attack of Modi government on the democratic polity which needs to be fought to save the country and its people.

They point out that rallying of secular and democratic parties should not be construed as electoral alliance. The forthcoming Congress will review the past political line and define the line for next three years. The political line CPM took in the last Congress is valid till the next party Congress. “Whether the Congress will endorse the same line or come out with a new line cannot be said now,” said a senior CPM leader hinting that all options were as far as political tactical line was concerned.