By IANS
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has alleged that the communal violence in Orissa was not “an isolated breakdown of law and order” but a part of an “overall strategy” by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to subvert republican principles.
In an editorial in the latest issue of party mouthpiece People’s Democracy, the CPI-M said safeguarding the republic was essential to put the country on the road to prosperity and progress.
CPI-M pointed out that last week’s violence in Orissa’s Kandhamal district that killed three people, allegedly unleashed by Hindu fundamentalists, came immediately after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s electoral victory in Gujarat.
“This anti-Christian campaign in Orissa is, thus, not an isolated breakdown of law and order. It is part of an overall strategy of the effort to transform modern India through the subversion of its republican principles.”
The editorial said: “Such electoral tactics are not transitory but dovetail the larger strategy objective of the RSS – the objective of transforming the secular democratic character of the modern Indian Republic into its conception of a rabidly intolerant Hindu Rashtra.”
The article said any attempt to subvert the fundamental pillars of India’s constitution could create havoc for the unity and integrity of the country.
“India is a country of unparalleled diversities – religious, linguistic, cultural, ethnic etc. The only way a country of this size and diversity can be kept united is by strengthening the bonds of commonality that exist amongst this diversity.
“Any attempt to impose a uniformity on this diversity can only lead to the disintegration of this country. And, it is precisely this that the communal forces under the slogan of ‘one country, one culture’ are seeking to do,” the editorial alleged.
The article recalled the anti-Christian campaign by the RSS and its affiliates launched in December 1998 in Gujarat, a state that is called Hindutva’s laboratory and where the BJP has won election after election.
The party also noted that M.S. Golwalkar, one of the prominent leaders of the RSS, had once remarked that the three internal enemies of its pursuit of establishing its conception of a Hindu Rashtra were the Muslims, Christians and the communists.
The communists urged the Indian people to be alert and take steps to stop the efforts to communalise the nation.
“The majority of Indian people who cherish the republican foundations of modern India need to halt this communal juggernaut in its tracks. This is absolutely essential to first safeguard our republic and to put it on the road of overall prosperity and progress,” the article said.