A day before the results of the hard-fought Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections are announced, Communist Party of India leaderD. Rajais guarded on calls for Opposition unity, and stresses the need for Left unity.
Do you see an alliance shaping up against the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections?
Before the Lok Sabha elections, there are several State elections. We will have to see how alignment and realignment of political forces takes place in the States. The RSS and Sangh Parivar outfits have become very aggressive — they have created an atmosphere of violence, intolerance and hate.
The CPI believes that there is a need for the broadest possible unity of secular democratic forces to collectively resist this Indian variant of fascism. Mostly, alliance or cooperation of political parties will be State-specific but at the national level, there shall be a unified message to stop these fascist forces.
The real electoral battle will be on State-specific issues and situations.
It was widely expected that the Gujarat campaign would see a joint Opposition effort, but we saw the Congress slugging it out alone in Gujarat...
There could have been some efforts from the Congress to reach out to other parties; they could have worked out an understanding with BSP, NCP… Whether other parties would have been ready, I can’t say, but at least they should have made an effort.
All exit polls are predicting an easy win for the BJP in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. If so, how difficult will it become for the Opposition?
In a few hours, we will know the results. So no point discussing the exit polls. Clearly, the idea of invincibility of the Prime Minister and the BJP has been shaken. The way they campaigned, especially the way the Prime Minister spoke, it was clear he and the party were rattled. On the ground, there is discontent, disillusionment ... people have started questioning the BJP’s rule. That is a big thing in Gujarat.
Why has Left not come to terms with the Congress even after so many years?
As far as the CPI is concerned, we have made our position clear. To fight the right-wing forces we need a broad alliance of secular democratic forces and that includes the Congress. All said and done, the Congress is the pan-Indian secular political party, despite certain trends here and there. The Congress must also revisit its economic programme and policy. At the same time, our party is of the view [that] the Congress must go back to Nehruvian-Ambedkarite positions. They cannot say that Narendra Modi is repackaging their schemes; if the Congress has to discard its own policies in the new situation, it will have to do it.
Is Left unity a possibility in the near future?
The CPI has come out with a public stand; we declared from our party congress of reunification of Communist parties. We have been given special emphasis to CPI-CPI(M) unity. When Comrade Harkrishan Singh Surjeet was general secretary in CPI (M) and Comrade Indrajit Gupta was general secretary, we had sent common circulars to our State units to have coordination committees. But we have come across certain difficulties. We have to introspect to clear these differences within us.
In this communally charged atmosphere, what is the future for Communists in India?
There is a big gap between our ideological-political influence and electoral performance. How to bridge this gap we are discussing in our own parties. The Communists may not believe in God or any religious philosophy. But we stand for everyone’s faith. For example in Tamil Nadu, we were at forefront of temple entry movement to allow Dalits [free access to temples]. We respect all faiths. As Communists, we say there should not be any compromise with any brand of communalism. We are the only hope for the people.
