Communist parties are engaged in a discussion for improving the mutual cooperation between the parties, CPI general secretary D. Raja has said.
Taking part in a media interaction here on Friday, Mr. Raja said an initiative made during the period of Indrajith Gupta, the former CPI general secretary, and Harkishan Singh Surjith, the former general secretary of CPI(M), to set up State-level coordination committees did not progress much due to various reasons.
The CPI had been consistently speaking for the reunification of Communist parties, including the CPI(M). The reunification is required in the changed political scenario of the country where the RSS-controlled government had returned to power, said Mr. Raja when asked about the stand of the CPI(M) towards the reunification call.
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s recent statement that there should be discussions on reservation in an amicable atmosphere was a ploy to do away with the constitutionally-guaranteed affirmative action, he said.
There cannot be any dilution on the principles of reservation as it was not a poverty alleviation programme but a provision for ensuring social justice to the socially backward sections of society, he said. On the thin presence of Dalits and other marginalised sections in the organisational hierarchy of Communist parties, Mr. Raja said the CPI had been addressing the issue in a systematic way after its Thrissur conference in 1993 and ensuring that the cadre from the marginalised sections were brought up in the organisation and assigned responsibilities.
Referring to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the CPI leader wondered why the government was preventing the visit of various political party leaders to the State if the situation there was peaceful as claimed by the government. “The security agencies had arrested and send me back twice along with others while we tried to visit Kashmir,” he said.
The BJP government had violated all principles of federalism in the introduction of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill, 2019, he said.
