CALCUTTA: Communist party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary E.M.S, Namboodiripad has said the Congress-I remains the biggest representative of the bourgeois-landlord ruling classes — the main enemy of the Indian people’.
There is, however, other like the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whose aggressiveness constitutes a grave threat to the national unity, he said.
The policies of the Congress-I being what they are, there is no reason to hope that the present government at the center would be able to tackle the serious problems confronting the nation, he said.
Asked what was his party’s attitude towards the new government at the center, Namboodiripad in an interview to “Ganashakiti”, the CPI-M party organ in west Bengal replied that the “CPI-M is and will continue to be in opposition to the new government”.
The CPI-M, he said, however, would watch how the government tackles national problems and adopt a positive attitude where correct policies are adopted.
Asked about the reasons for the sudden growth of BJP’s strength and if it was a temporary phenomenon, Namboodiripad said he did not think that the growth of the BJP was a sudden development.
He said that it was part of the process through which Hindu communalism organized itself in the years of freedom struggle but became stronger after the partition and the developments thereafter.
This and its non-Hindu counterparts he said would continue to pose a threat to national unity unless the Left, Democratic and secular forces combine in a powerful political alliance.
Replying to a question about the future prospect of the National Front-left combine, the CPI-M general secretary said he hoped that the parties in the combine would introspect and overcome the weakness in their policies and organizational practices which would make it possible for them to grow.
Asked if the recent phenomenon of hung parliament be reversed in future, Namboodiripad said two successive elections had shown that hung parliament “is inherent in the situation”. No party, he said, had the support of the majority of the people in the country.
The CPI-M general secretary said the difference between 1989 and 1991 polls on the one hand and the earlier elections on the other, was that while earlier a single party could win a majority of seats even on a minority votes, it has now become impossible for any party to get a majority of seats. On the same pattern he did not think the situation would be reversed.
Commenting on the prospect of left and democratic forces emerging as the only viable alternative, as it was evident that days of one party was over, namboodiripad said the left and democratic forces were, at the moment, extremely weak in the country. They have to overcome their weakness if they are to emerge as an effective political force.
On the results of the recent parliamentary elections, Namboodiripad said the results did cause concern. “The Hindu communal outfit had gained though its ambition of becoming the single biggest party had been belied,” he said.
He said though the Congress-I had been denied the privilege of coming out with a clear majority, it had come out as the single largest party but the popular vote of the party had been reduced, he said adding that the Left National Front combine was still a major force.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 5, 1991
