By IANS,
Kolkata : Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat Tuesday said the Left could not align with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the Congress as they represented the interests of the “big bourgeoisie”.
However, he differentiated between the BJP and the Congress, saying while the former advocated and represented majority communalism, Congress believed in secular politics though it has sometimes comprised on its position.
“Congress and BJP are direct representative of the big bourgeoisie. So we can have no alliance with either of them,” Karat said while delivering the Promode Dasgupta Memorial Lecture here on “Communist Party and politics of United Front”.
“But BJP as a party advocates and represents majority communalism. The Congress believes in secular politics though it has vacillated and compromised on this issue earlier,” he said.
On the Left’s decision to support the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the centre between 2004 and 2008, he said the Left parties had opposed all the “neo-liberal and anti-people” policies of the UPA government. “We also put pressure for implementing pro-people programmes as outlined in the Common minimum Programme (CMP)”.
“And when it departed more and more from the CMP in terms of foreign policy and economic policy, the Left parties withdrew support,” he said.
Admitting that a united front of left parties would not be viable at the national level, Karat said unless the working class parties were independently strong, the United Front could not be built and widened.
“You can temporarily get some parties but they don’t stay with you for long, for they have other interests”.
Karat said the CPI-M forged electoral understanding and alliances in various states to defeat either the Congress or the BJP, but “those were mere electoral understandings not based on any programme”.
“Unfortunately, because of the very nature of many bourgeoisie parties, they are not concerned with the people’s problems. They see alliances merely as a means to maximise electoral gains”.
Describing West Bengal’s ruling Left Front, led by the CPI-M, as the highest level of a united front, he said “Nowhere in India there is such an alliance. CPI-M as the major partner has major responsibilities. Let us carry it forward, strengthen it”.
In contrast, he said the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) in Kerala was not merely a Left forum. “There are other parties who are associates of Left parties in social struggles”.
He said in recent times, attacks on the Leftist forces have sharpened. “The Left sectarian and Left adventurist forces have also joined in the attack. And after the setbacks we have suffered, there are many who wish to negate all our achievements.”
“If there are shortcomings, we will identify and correct them,” Karat added.