CPI(M) sees re-emergence of anti-Left forces

CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan flags coming together of majority and minority communal forces ahead of the local body elections in 2025

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has flagged the coming together of majority and minority communal forces ahead of the local body elections in 2025 to stoke social divisiveness and undermine the Left Democratic Front government and the party’s progressive and secular appeal.

Speaking to mediapersons on Friday, CPI(M) State secretary M.V. Govindan said Independent legislator P.V. Anvar’s acrimonious parting of ways with the LDF and the legislator’s relentless defamatory attacks against Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, law enforcement and party leaders were the axis’s latest manifestation.

Mr Govindan alleged that the “fundamentalist” Jamaat-e-Islami had secretly parleyed with the Hindu majoritarian Sangh Parivar recently. The Jamaat-e-Islami and other Islamist organisations in its orbit were preparing the ground for the ascendancy of Hindutva forces in Kerala by stoking minority communalism. 

Mr Govindan said fascist forces on either side of the religious spectrum were attempting to enhance each other’s appeal by resorting to socially divisive shadowboxing. He termed their stated enmity a political ruse. Though seemingly opposed, the Jamaat-e-Islami and Sangh Parivar complemented each other. Both threatened secular polity and sought to supplant broad-based party politics with schismatic identity politics. 

Mr Govindan accused the Congress and the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) of holding an umbrella to the communal axis. The right-wing media have provided a powerful propaganda engine for the alliance. The “rainbow coalition” reinvented itself in the run-up to the local body polls in 2025.

Mr Govindan said the CPI(M) had broken into the IUML’s bastion in Malappuram by experimenting with Left Independents in elections. Moreover, the CPI(M)‘s progressive appeal and growing acceptance among minorities worried the IUML, Congress, and Jamaat-e-Islami. Hence, the Opposition has changed its secular tack and adopted a communal line in north Kerala.

Mr Govindan said Congress votes shifted to the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency as part of the alleged arrangement. “The UDF lost 86,000 votes while the LDF gained 16,000.” The Thrissur Pooram disruption had the makings of a right-wing conspiracy, he added.

Published - October 04, 2024 10:05 pm IST