CPI(M) Party Congress Inaugural Day: Speakers target BJP, RSS, Hindutva Forces

The 22nd triennial party congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) commenced in Hyderabad on Wednesday. During the five-day national conference, the party will decide on the CPM leadership and on the course of action ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Central Committee — the highest policymaking body of the party — will also be elected during the party congress.

While the inaugural session of the conference was chaired by the Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar, the welcome address was delivered by the chairman of the reception committee, BV Raghavulu. He said, “As BJP, RSS’s feudal communal elements escalate their ideological, physical attacks on socially oppressed sections; as the neoliberal policies severely hit the weaker sections of society hard, the fight for social justice assumes greater importance.” Referring to the party’s fight against the right wing forces, he said that the fight could become one of the important bulwarks against the BJP Sangh Parivar and their Hindutva communal agenda.

In his address, General Secretary Sitaram Yechury spoke about the party’s defeat in the assembly elections of Tripura. He said, “In the recently held Tripura Elections, the Left suffered a major setback. RSS/BJP entered into an unprincipled alliance with the extremist tribal organisations and united all anti-Left forces on a single platform to achieve this objective. They have unleashed a campaign of terror and violence attacking Left activists, their offices with the intent of paralysing the Left in Tripura. This shall not be allowed. This shall be defeated.” He also talked about the attacks on the CPIM members by the BJP and RSS in the state of Kerala. “(They are) targeting the Left cadres with murderous assaults. While mounting a nationwide disinformation campaign against the CPIM. The truth is the other way round. This is being resisted and will be defeated,” said Yechury.

Sarkar, too, emphasised the need to resist the saffron forces in the country. He said, “We need to build broadest possible unity in our fight against BJP-RSS, but we cannot compromise our class outlook while fighting them.”

Sudhakar Reddy, General Secretary of the CPI, Dipankar Bhattacharya, General Secretary of CPI(ML)-Liberation, G R Shivashankar, Secretary, Central Committee, AIFB, Manoj Bhattacharya, member, Central Secretariat of National Committee, RSP, and Asit Bhattacharyya, member, Polit Bureau, SUCI(C) also addressed the inaugural session of the party congress.