FB returns Basu salvo on prop-Cong line
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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