Zeroing in on the growing sense of political drift plaguing the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government, top Left leaders on Wednesday buttressed the case for ‘Left unity' at the 21st congress of the Communist Party of India here.
Leaders from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), the Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party were present at the inaugural session of the five-day congress.
In his address, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat stressed “closer co-operation between the CPI and the CPI(M),” pointing out that the time was ripe for the Left parties to increase their independent strengths.
Reiterating his idea of Left resurgence, he said there were serious attempts to isolate and weaken the Left parties as potent political forces, and urged increased co-operation between them at the national level.
The CPI(M) is slated to hold its own 20th party congress in Kozhikode, Kerala, next month.
Mr. Karat said the CPI congress was taking place against the backdrop of a global capitalist crisis, and a deepening agrarian crisis at home compounded by farmer suicides, exploitation of natural resources and surging levels of hunger and malnutrition.
‘Congress, BJP equally corrupt'
Mentioning the Congress party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in the same breath with regard to corruption, he said there was no difference between the two. Both national parties “are the protagonists, progenitors and advocates of rapacious neo-liberal policies.”
If the Congress-led UPA-II government could not live down the infamy of the 2G spectrum scandal, the BJP too could not escape responsibility for the loot of mining resources in Karnataka, said Mr. Karat.
Both he and CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan censured the UPA government for continuing with the neo-liberal policies which were strongly opposed by the Left during the tenure of UPA-I.
