CPM asks Congress to give up 'Soft Hindutva'

Kannur, Apr 7: Calling a “broad secular front as the need of the hour”, the Communist Party of India (CPI)(Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday urged all the secular and democratic forces to come together to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

 

 

 

Meanwhile Yechury called for the Congress party of India to relinquish its ‘soft Hindutva’. Yechury’s CPM has single digit seats in Lok Sabha and he is advising the primary opposition party of India with over 50 seats in Lok sabha as one of its worst ever performance. Delivering the inaugural address at the 23rd party congress — which is being attended by at least 906 delegates — in Kannur (north Kerala) Yechury said, a broad secular front is needed to dislodge the BJP.

 

 

 

“The BJP is the number one enemy of the party and the country. It has to be isolated and defeated. It is undermining all the constitutional bodies and selling off PSUs one by one. All secular forces should come together to dump the party driven by the Hindutva ideology,” he said. Meanwhile, the BJP has criticised the CPI(M) for dubbing it as the number one enemy. “The CPI(M) doesn’t believe in democratic principles, nationalistic thoughts, doesn’t subscribe to pro-poor policies or religious beliefs,” said minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan.

 

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“Hindutva communalism let loose by Sangh Parivar and its outfits can be combated by championing uncompromising secularism. All political parties that proclaim secularism should rise to the occasion to discharge their patriotic duty. A broad secular front is the need of the hour,” Yechury said. The Congress party, the main opposition in the country, will have to do enough rethinking on its secular position and credentials on a number of issues and must set its house in order, he added. Muraleedharan said that the party general secretary agrees that there is not a single Dalit in highest decision-making body of the politburo but it still calls the BJP an upper class party. He said 12 members of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi cabinet are from SC/ST communities.