Kanam Rajendran, State secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), has stressed the need to take into account the sensibilities of the new middle class while deciding on the modes of struggle.
Talking to mediapersons here on Tuesday, Mr. Rajendran said the party was aware of the sentiments of a sizeable section of society to the traditional modes of struggle and protests.
While they express their solidarity with issues taken up by political parties, many of them, mostly the new middle class that has emerged on account of the globalisation and neoliberal polices, do not empathise with the traditional methods of agitation, especially if the protests get in the way of their freedom of movement and their personal space.
Political parties would have to take into account the changing sensibilities of the people and change themselves while coining new slogans and designing new modes of struggle, he said.
Referring to the ire of the people against hartals, he said this tool was not always used by mainstream parties.
Responding to a question, he said his priority would be to strengthen and widen the vote base of the party and the Left in general, by spearheading agitations taking up issues of the common man. While the CPI wants to strengthen the LDF, it did not mean that the party would like more coalition partners.
Support base
“The process of strengthening the LDF should be effected through widening the support base of the Left by earning the confidence of the people through taking up their issues. This can be done only if the people are made aware that the Left is different from the UDF, in policies and programmes,” he pointed out.
Mr. Rajendran said the rise of the BJP could have a direct bearing on the Left vote base. “The strength and the base of the LDF are not minority votes. This could mean that the strengthening of the BJP vote base would have a direct impact on the LDF vote base. This needs serious introspection. However, so far, the process has not impacted the LDF as was evident from the outcome of the by-elections to local bodies,” he said.
Mr. Rajendran also cautioned against minority appeasement as a way of counter balancing the moves in the majority vote base. “The CPI has always taken a firm stand against minority appeasement and communalism of the majority communities since both are equally dangerous to the democratic process and as such should be resisted.”
He said the CPI was not averse to induction of more partners into the LDF. However, this should be based on the policies and programmes, which should be against the neo-liberal economic policies and the globalisation process.