New Delhi: In a first step towards expanding the Left block, six Left parties met here on Saturday and decided to launch a joint nationwide campaign against communalism and the problems afflicting the people’s lives and livelihood.
Leaders of two new entrants Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation and Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist), joined those of the CPI(M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc, at the two-hour meet where they decided to conduct a week-long protest campaign from December 8-14 in different parts of the country.
Charging that the Narendra Modi government was “being backed fully by the corporates and the Hindutva forces”, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said, “We have put out a nine point charter of demands which includes the attack on MGNREGA by the Modi government, its decision to increase FDI in the insurance sector, its failure despite election promises to take firm steps to unearth blackmoney.”
Taking on the RSS, he said it was trying to “infiltrate” the education system, various social and cultural institutions. “There is this so called ‘love jihad’ campaign by the RSS and the Hindutva outfits.”
Asked about plans to join hands with other secular parties, Mr Karat said, “First our effort is to strengthen the Left and unite the Left forces. After that we will see about other things.” “Its a process of widening and strengthening the left. There are other forces also in the Left. We will try to bring them together,” he said.
During the protest, the parties would focus on price rise, “exorbitant” price of medicines and drugs, against hike in FDI in insurance, unearthing black money, stopping of ‘love jihad’ hate campaign and other forms of communal propaganda and atrocities on women, Dalits and downtrodden sections.
Besides Karat, those who attended the meeting were Debabrata Biswas (AIFB), Kshiti Goswami and Manoj Bhattacharya (RSP), Swapan Mukherjee and Kavita Krishnan (CPI(ML)- Liberation), Manik Mukherjee and Ranjit Dhar (SUCI(C)), A.B. Bardhan and D. Raja (CPI) and S. Ramachandran Pillai (CPI(M)).
