Kozhikode
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Mangat Ram Pasla, general secretary of the Revolutionary Marxist Party of India (RMPI), on Wednesday urged the CPI(M) to learn lessons from its experience in West Bengal.
He was opening a public meeting at Orkkatteri near Vadakara on Wednesday evening to mark the 10th death anniversary of party founder T.P. Chandrasekharan. It was on May 4 of 2012 that Chandrasekharan, who rebelled and came out of the CPI(M), was murdered by political rivals.
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Mr. Pasla said that the CPI(M)-led Left Front government lost power in West Bengal after it tried to snatch land from farmers for development projects at Nandigram and Singur. “But it looks like that party has not learnt any lessons,” he said.
Mr. Pasla alleged that the Left Democratic Front government was trying to implement similar policies in Kerala, an example of which was the semi-high-speed rail network (SilverLine) project. “SilverLine is not for the common man. It is for the Ambanis and Adanis. The Chief Minister here is pursuing the same policies as the BJP government at the Centre,” he claimed. Mr. Pasla urged the CPI(M) to change its development agenda and be part of the united fight against fascist forces.
He claimed that the Narendra Modi government wanted to destroy the country’s economy by selling or privatising public sector undertakings to help corporate houses take them over. It was also changing the fundamentals of the Constitution to establish a theocratic Hindutva state. In the process, religious minorities, Dalits, women, adivasis, and progressive people were being attacked and targeted, Mr. Pasla said. A united fight by people with different ideologies can destroy these nefarious designs, he added.
N.K. Premachandran, MP, and K.K. Rema, Vadakara MLA, and Chandrasekharan’s wife, were present among others.