Kollam: The 24th State Conference of the Communist Party Of India (Marxist) began Thursday on a confrontational note with the party’s central leadership serving a reminder to INDIA bloc ally Congress: the alliance notwithstanding, the Left does not need “certificates from the Congress leadership here (in Kerala) on how to fight the BJP and the RSS”.
The remarks by CPIM politburo member Prakash Karat were in response to Kerala Congress MLA V.D. Satheesan’s charge that the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) is diluting its stand against the Modi government. “I’m amused to find that the Congress leaders in Kerala, who seem to be experts on fascism, are critiquing our use of the term neo-fascism and that the Modi government is displaying neo-fascistic characteristics,” Karat said.
Satheesan had at a press conference the previous day accused CPI(M) of “whitewashing” the central government as “non-fascist” in a draft political resolution ahead of the party’s 24th Congress in Madurai last April.
Inaugurating the State Conference at C. Kesavan Memorial Hall in Kollam district, Karat maintained Thursday that the CPI(M) has not diluted its stance. He cited the political resolution passed at the party’s 22nd Congress held in Hyderabad in 2018 which called attention to the dangers of growing “extreme rightwing (sic) neo-fascist tendencies”.
The @CPIMKerala State Conference started today with Comrade A K Balan, a member of the Central Committee, hoisting the flag. Polit Bureau Member and Coordinator Comrade Prakash Karat inaugurated the delegate session in Kollam. The conference will continue until March 9.
Polit… pic.twitter.com/ccvUybROdh— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) March 6, 2025
“With 11 years of Modi government’s rule, the aggressive drive to impose the Hindutva agenda, the neo-liberal agenda. Yes, they are displaying neo-fascistic characteristics now. And we have to fight and resist. Because if we don’t do it now, it will develop into full-fledged fascism. This is what makes us mobilise the people, creates the ground to fight the neo-fascistic trends and politics. This is how we understand this,” he said.
“Distorting this, the Congress is only playing cheap politics. We don’t need certificates from the Congress leadership here on how to fight BJP and RSS. Since the last State Conference, four CPI(M) members were killed by the RSS. This is proof of who is fighting RSS and BJP in Kerala,” Karat said.
Karat added that the draft political resolution for the 24th Congress made mention of “neo-fascism” and “neo-fascist tendencies” since this ideology is different from the “classical fascism” that found its roots around the world in the early 20th Century. The draft political resolution was adopted by the CPI(M) Central Committee at a meeting in Kolkata in January.
“The nearly eleven years of the Modi government’s rule have resulted in the consolidation of the rightwing, communal, authoritarian forces with neo-fascist characteristics,” it said.
Adding, “The Modi government represents the alliance of Hindutva forces and the big bourgeoisie. Hence, the prime task is to fight and defeat the BJP-RSS and the Hindutva-corporate nexus underpinning it.”
Karat’s remarks at the opening of the 24th State Conference are also being seen as a response to criticism of CPI(M) over a clarification issued by its politburo in the latest edition of the party’s mouthpiece Chintha Weekly stating: “We don’t say that the Modi government is a fascist or neo-fascist. We don’t depict the Indian government as a neo-fascist regime.”
The Congress party’s Kerala unit had seized on the clarification to accuse the CPI(M) of diluting its stand against BJP and RSS to appeal to the BJP’s voters, and to nurture a tacit understanding with the Sangh.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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