Madurai: The 24th congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) retained the reference to the Modi government as one with “neo-fascist characteristics” in its political resolution passed Sunday, despite criticism on the issue from the Left and Kerala Congress earlier this year.
The draft of the resolution, adopted in February, had come under criticism from the Kerala Congress and a section of the Left for allegedly watering down its stance against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre after it stopped short of calling it a “fascist or neo-fascist government”.
“In nearly eleven years the Modi government’s rule has resulted in the consolidation of rightwing, communal, authoritarian forces with neo-fascist characteristics,” the resolution said. “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.”
The introduction to the document said that the “period since the 23rd Congress was marked by a growing conflict between the forces of the Hindutva-corporate regime, represented by the Modi government and the secular-democratic forces who were opposed to it.”
“The push to impose a reactionary Hindutva agenda and the authoritarian drive to suppress the opposition and democracy displays neo-fascist characteristics.”
When asked about the wording, CPI(M) politburo member B.V. Raghavalu told ThePrint that the Modi government is displaying fascist characteristics and using all the institutions, including the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, and Election Commission, according to its wishes.
However, he said, “It cannot be called as a fascist, but only be termed as displaying a neo-fascist character.
“If it was a fascist, there shouldn’t be elections at all, there will be only one party. However, that’s not the case now. Whatever said, the actions of the Modi government show the signs of travelling towards fascism. Hence, we termed it as neo-fascist,” he told ThePrint.
The draft political resolution was adopted at the national conference in Madurai with as many as 133 amendments suggested by delegates. The party received 3,424 amendments and 84 suggestions on the draft political resolution that was released two months before the congress.
Apart from the political resolution, the party had also passed 13 other resolutions during the congress, including support for the all-India strike of the labour unions against the labour code, demand to restore the statehood at Jammu and Kashmir, push for conducting a general census and caste census and ensuring equitable and just delimitation, resolve to conduct a rally to defend the Left Democratic Front government in Kerala, and opposition to the One Nation One Election drive of the Modi government.
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Age limit relaxation for Kerala CM
The party elected its 85-member central committee with 30 new members. Six senior leaders including Tripura former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Prakash Karat, Brinda Karat, and Subashini Ali were relieved from the central committee due to the age restriction of 75, but were appointed as the special invites to the central committee.
However, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and P.K. Sreemathi from Kerala were given age relaxation and were allowed to continue in the party’s central committee despite crossing the age threshold.
At the end of the congress, CM Pinarayi announced that M.A. Baby, a politburo member, was elected as the general secretary of the party.
Addressing the delegates of the party congress, Baby said that he was accepting the party post as a footsoldier of the party.
He announced the 18-member list of the politburo. It included old members Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and senior leader B.V. Raghavulu, new members Jiten Choudhury, state secretary of Tripura K Balakrishnan, former state secretary of Tamil Nadu U. Vasuki from Tamil Nadu, and farmer leaders Amraram from Rajasthan, Srideep Bhattacharya from West Bengal, and Vijoo Krishnan from Kerala.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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