Statesman News Service
The Statesman
May 28, 1999
Title: FB returns Basu salvo on prop-Cong line Author: Statesman News Service Publication: The Statesman Date: May 28, 1999 Is refusal to help Mrs Sonia Gandhi become Prime Minister an 'irresponsible political stand'? Is refusal to toe the CPI-M line on this question a "proof of incompetence"? The Forward Bloc has asked these questions in a document while answering charges levelled by Mr Jyoti Basu in a recent article he wrote in his party newspaper, Ganashakti. The document is virtually a manual for party workers to 'answer criticism' of the party's role in the political development after the fall of the, Vajpayee government. It has torn to shreds the CPI-M's arguments for extending issue-based support to the Congress if it formed a government at the Centre. The Forward Bloc took exception to the chief minister's remarks in his article that the "Samajwadi Party and two Left parties failed to realise the great danger that communalism poses to the country's secular fabric and took an irresponsible stand". The document has sought to remind Mr Basu that the stand to SU a Congress government from outside was taken by "the CPI-M and not the Left Front". In fact, the FB has totally rejected the CPI-M's assessment of the country's political situation that "communalism is the greatest threat" and that the BJP is a "greater enemy than the Congress". It charges: "The policy of identifying communalism as the main danger and compromise with parties representing the Capitalists is utterly wrong. In fact, such a line will only ruin the Left movement and lead it astray." It further asserts: "Which is the greater enemy, BJP or the Congress? Such superficial assessment is meaningless. Just as the demolition of Babari Masjid created a sense of insecurity among the minority community, so also the Emergency of 1975 demolished the minimum democratic rights of the people. Dictatorial tendency is manifest in both the acts. The question of extending support on the basis of which one of the two parties is less autocratic does not arise." "And what does issue-based sups port mean? We have no idea o the issues of the Congress. Couldn't we gauge the issues after about 50 years of Congress rule ? We have launched movements against these issues. Then why is t ere to be issue-based support through compromise? The truth is it is an opportunistic line?" the document states. The Forward Bloc does not find any logic behind the "bogey" that communalism is the greatest threat in the country now. "Communalism is certainly a danger, but it is not the only one. Monopoly capitalism is also a danger. The cause of large scale retrenchment and lack of initiative to create jobs is not communalism, but domestic and foreign monopoly capital. Communalism is being termed as the only danger to support the Congress by any means. This is a wrong tactic," the document explains. It is sheer "political bankruptcy" to take Congress help to "keep the BJP at bay at any cost". "The more this bankruptcy will grow, there will be further diminution of strength and the ultimate result will be greater domineering attitude. For this reason support to Congress could be announced without consulting the Left Front constituents and Forward Bloc and RSP were branded as irresponsible in Ganashakti articles," the document states. Its prescription for fighting the BJP is to organise "orchestrated propaganda and mass movement against the BJP". Those who do not follow this course, treat the BJP as the "bugbear".
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