Kannur (Ker): CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday said the Hindutva communal agenda has to be frontally taken on and every attempt of communal polarisation has to be countered at each level, which is a major challenge facing the Marxist party, particularly in the Hindi speaking states.
Besides the northern states, the northeast region is also being “rapidly and most dangerously communalised” now using Assam as their access, he alleged.
That would have a very serious consequence in the future, he told at a press meet here, a day after the Marxist party’s 23rd party congress concluded.
“Hindutva communal agenda has to be frontally taken on and that has to be done politically, ideologically, socially, culturally and organisationally,” Yechury said.
They use all the social mechanisms available to propagate the communal polarisation and this has to be countered at each level.
Asked whether the CPI(M) has any special plans for the Hindi speaking states, the senior left leader said a meeting of party secretaries in those states would be convened soon to discuss how to implement things outlined in the party’s political organisational report.
“That is basically to take on the hindutva communal agenda…it has to be met straight on.. we have to take the bull by the horns,” he said.
Expressing concerns over the alleged hijacking of real issues of the country and struggles for the people’s causes through polarisation, Yechury said such topics are not becoming part of the mainstream narrative. The mainstream narrative is continuously hijacked to a polarised communal situation and that’s what needs to be broken, he opined.
Attacking BJP and Narendra Modi, Yechury said the Prime Minister’s preoccupation today is either hijab or halal or azaan, he said these were the issues important for them and not the growing unemployment, not the growing suicide by youth and farmers, not the growing poverty or the daily hike of the price of petroleum products.
So we need to shift this narration away from this polarisation that they are seeking.. and that’s a major challenge” he added.
Rejecting media reports that the CPI(M)’s central leadership is against the Pinarayi Vijayan government’s flagship Silver Line rail corridor project, he said the semi high speed railway is necessary for the state’s development. Noting that the CPI(M) is determined that the southern state be developed, he said it is not just now but from the time of late party veteran and first chief minister of Kerala EMS Namboothiripad.
How long could the state be dependent on outside for various things? he asked. It could be changed only if development happens here, he said.
The opposition against the project is only in terms of land acquisition and anyway the survey is going on, he said.
The CPI(M) general secretary also wanted the media not to compare the semi high speed rail with the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, against which the party is on a warpath.
“Don’t mechanically compare both without knowing the details,” Yechury added. PTI

Press Trust of India