Party looks at forging third front

The six-day party congress of the CPM concluded with the party declaring that it is determined to work towards a third alternative to both the BJP and the Congress.

“We affirmed that our struggle against neo-liberal economic policies and for alternative policies will be carried forward with renewed vigour,” Prakash Karat, who was re-elected as General Secretary of the party, declared on Thursday.

Karat, in his concluding speech, said the party’s political stand for the next three years has been worked out. The CPM would launch a “determined battle” against the BJP and the RSS and “prevent India from becoming a junior partner of US imperialism.”

He said the party congress had commended the leadership for resisting the UPA policies of neo-liberalism and the spread of US imperialism. “Till we can gather forces for the creation of a Left and democratic front in the country, it is necessary to create a third alternative,” Karat said.

The CPM general secretary said that the party's core constituency would be the working class, the peasantry and all oppressed sections. “We are for the millions of people who are being ground down by neo-liberal policies and liberalization. This is our message to all secular and democratic forces,” he said.

The CPM's political line, worked out for the next three years, will be to gather all non-Congress and non-BJP parties that are secular in nature and opposed to neo-liberal policies. “The party congress has reiterated that the fight against communal forces led by the BJP-RSS will be conducted determinedly,” Karat said.

A day after the attack on the party's Pune office, Karat said, “You have seen how RSS is targeting our party. This is because the CPM is the most consistent opponent of all forms of communalism.”