The 24th Party Congress of the Communist Party of India (CPI) will be held in Vijayawada between October 14 and 18. Ahead of the meeting, the CPI’s National Council released a draft political resolution (DPR) which says that the “BJP misrule” has plunged the country into a deep crisis. CPI general secretary D. Rajaspoke about various aspects of the resolution.
The last Party Congress of the CPI said there is a rightward shift in Indian politics. In the 2019 election, the BJP retained power. How do you assess the political atmosphere in the country now?
When the BJP came to power in 2014, we said it was not just a change of government, but a characteristic change. The BJP is nothing but a political wing of the RSS whose ideology is divisive, sectarian and communal-fascist. After Mr. Modi returned to power in 2019, the RSS has become quite aggressive.
Since 2014, the BJP-RSS combine has been destroying the secular and welfare character of Indian state. The BJP is giving de facto status to a particular religion. The Prime Minister is converting even Constitutional ceremonies into religious ceremonies. This has never happened before.
The DPR says the system of governance in China, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos are model systems. Why?
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, people thought socialism is dead and it is the end of history. We never agreed to this position. Now socialism’s global influence is growing.
While capitalism has become a system of unprecedented exploitation and inequality, socialism as an ideology has thrived. That is what we witness in Latin America and in Europe. In France and Germany, the Left gained in the recent elections. Even in India, Mr. Modi often says that communism is a dangerous ideology. Mr. Modi recognises that ultimately he has to face communism. For him, socialism is a threat.
The socialist systems in China and Vietnam helped them handle the COVID-19 crisis in a much better way. They were with the people. In India, we did not encourage our public sector companies in pharmaceuticals. Private sector pharma companies looted the people amid a crisis.
The DPR suggests an alternative economic programme. You are not in power. How will you implement them?
We are critical of the neo-liberal economic policies aggressively pursued by this government. Every sector is facing a crisis and economy is in a bad shape. At the same time, people need a sensible alternative beyond the criticism of these policies. That is where we identify public education, public health, housing, employment, right to food and land as the fundamental issues of livelihood of the people. We should mobilise the people on these issues and fight against the government. Corporatisation of agriculture is being promoted. Even if we are not in power, these initiatives can be taken up as cadre responsibility.
Left unity and Opposition unity is facing challenges. How will you combat the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections and in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll?
2024 is a critical election. We have been saying that all secular democratic parties, social movements and the Left should come together to defeat the BJP. We need national-level unity of the Opposition. The . A united Left can galvanise the democratic forces together.
The historic developments in the country demand that communist parties should be united. There is no meaning of Left unity when communist parties are functioning as small parties and groups. Communist unification based on principles is our objective. We have to assess the national and global situation and each communist party must think how we can work out a common programme. The Presidential election became a fight between two ideas — the idea of the RSS and the idea of secular and democratic India. We tried our best to build secular democratic unity. Our candidate got more than 35% votes, which is not a small thing.
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