CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat. File
| Photo Credit: S. Siva Saravanan
The 24th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) slated to be held in Madurai between April 2 and 6, will discuss the “need and vital importance of increasing the independent strength of the party.”
“Unless the party’s independent strength grows, the BJP-RSS forces cannot be effectively fought,” writes Prakash Karat, former general secretary of the party, in People’s Democracy, in his message, ‘To show the way forward’.
Mr. Karat is functioning as the coordinator of the party after the demise of Sitaram Yechury, the general secretary of the party in September 2024. Since the date and venue of the conference was decided while Yechury was alive, the party gave up the idea of nominating an acting general secretary.
Incidentally, Madurai will be the only city in India of achieving the distinction of hosting the party’s all India Congress for the third time. Thamukkam ground, where the Congress will take place, had also hosted the third Congress of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in 1953. The split in the CPI in 1964 had paved the way for the formation of the CPI (M) and its 9th conference was also held in Madurai in 1972.
The draft political resolution for the Congress quoted by Mr. Karat says the success of struggles against the Hindutva neo-liberal regime requires the growth of the independent strength of the CPI(M) and Left forces. He talks about the significance and the challenges faced by the LDF government in Kerala, but is silent on any plans to rejuvenate the party in erstwhile stronghold West Bengal.
A tough task as the party is no longer in power in West Bengal and Tripura, though it was able to win a second consecutive term in Kerala. The party also does not have the strength in the Lok Sabha to make its presence felt. Today it has just four MPs including Su. Venkatesan, who is representing Madurai Lok Sabha. Another MP R. Sachidhanandam, representing Dindigul seat, is also from Tamil Nadu. The two others are from Kerala and Rajasthan.
According to Mr. Karat, strengthening of the party required work among the basic classes.
“More attention should be paid to the independent political campaign and mass mobilisations around the political platform of the party. There should be no blurring of our independent identity or diminishing our independent activities in the name of electoral understanding or alliances,” he writes.
His assertion assumes significance as the party, subjected to the compulsions of alliance and in the name of opposing the BJP, toes the lines of the ruling dispensation on many issues in Tamil Nadu.
Despite these compulsions, in Tamil Nadu, CITU, the trade union affiliated to the CPI(M) succeeded in winning union rights for the Samsung workers in Kancheepuram. The party is also in the forefront in highlighting the problems of the downtrodden, especially the Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
“We always fight for people’s issues. But we are also aware that the BJP is not just another bourgeois party. It is driven by a divisive ideology and we have to wage an ideological war to defeat it,” said politburo member G. Ramakrishnan.
Mr. Karat also says the party would work for continuation of a broad platform of secular opposition forces like the INDIA bloc.
Published – March 30, 2025 03:54 pm IST
