The two major Left parties, Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] and Communist Party of India (CPI), seem to be sharing similar views on the Congress party’s limitations in countering the assault on secularism by the Sangh Parivar.
This was revealed in the speeches of CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat and CPI general secretary D. Raja during a seminar on ‘Challenges of Indian secularism’ held on the sidelines of the the 23rd CPI(M) party congress here on Thursday.
Before speaking on the issue, Mr. Karat criticised the Congress for prohibiting Shashi Tharoor, Thiruvananthapuram MP, from attending the seminar. Though Mr. Tharoor had been declared one of the panelists earlier, he was barred by the Congress leadership from participating in it.
“I am disappointed to see the absence of Mr. Tharoor. A national party is prohibiting its own leaders from attending a seminar on such an important issue. This stand of the Congress is going to further damage their credibility and image among the people,” Mr. Karat said.
He, later, said that to defend secularism, we need to fight for democracy and federalism as well. “We cannot say we can accept some partial form of secularism. We cannot say we can have 50% secularism and 50% Hindutva. Why the Congress is not taking a firm stand in defence of secularism when they say that they are secular?” he asked.
Mr. Karat said that recently the Gujarat government declared that the Bhagavad Gita would be taught in classes 6 to 12 as part of the syllabus. The Congress, the main Opposition party, supported it.
“They thought they will become unpopular if they opposes it. In Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, wherever the BJP government takes a stand, the Congress will say we will do better than this. They think that we can’t counter communalism by taking a strong secular position, so let us adopt a soft Hindutva,” Mr. Karat pointed out.
Talking on the challenges to fight Hindutva, Mr. Raja said the Congress was talking about genuine Hindus. “They themselves don’t understand what they are saying. This soft Hindutva will not lead you anywhere,” he said.
Mr. Raja asked the Congress to rethink its policy. “And even on economic policies, we tell them to at least get back to Nehruvian policies. The Congress does not listen. It is high time the Congress did serious introspection and reworked its strategies and reassess its position,” he added.
