ON April 7, 2014, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said the BJP’s election manifesto, which was published as late as on the day the first phase of polling began, proved that the party still stuck to its communal agenda, with the temple issue, repeal of article 370 and introduction of a unified civil code being the parts of this agenda. Karat said so while addressing a Meet the Press programme in Thiruvananthapuram Press Club. The decision to field Narendra Modi in Varanasi constituency is another evidence of the Hindutva agenda. After the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992, the Sangh Parivar had warned that Kashi and Mathura would be their next targets. In this context, Karat wanted to know how the Congress proposed to resist the BJP and prevent it from coming to power. He ridiculed the defence minister A K Antony’s dream that the Congress would retain power at the centre, even as a massive anti-Congress wave was blowing all over the country. While the Congress had bagged 33 seats out of 42 in Andhra Pradesh in 2009, it was going to be defeated in the state. The situation in Tamilnadu is similar. He, however, expressed the hope that the BJP would not be able to capture power. He was confident that the Left parties would put up a better performance in Kerala and West Bengal in comparison to the 2009 elections.  On the same day, Brinda Karat, a member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau, addressed a Meet the Press programme organised by the Kasargode Press Club, where she underlined the threat facing India’s secular fabric in case the BJP came to power. She also said if the BJP came in to power, the agriculture sector would be ruined as this party threatens to introduce FDI in this sector, which would endanger the life of our farmers. Crores of farmers will be thrown into debt and starvation. Launching a scathing attack on Rahul Gandhi, Brinda challenged the Congress vice president to reveal the names of the state where the Congress is strong. Rahul said the CPI(M) has no relevance at the national level but, Brinda asked, did he ever think about the Congress leaders’ exodus to the BJP? KARAT RIDICULES ANTONY’S PIOUS HOPE DUBBING as meaningless the statement made by union defence minister A K Antony about the possible support of the Left to the Congress in the post-election scenario, is irrelevant, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat said that the Congress was heading for a catastrophe in these Lok Sabha elections and would be uprooted. Karat said so while talking to the media in a Meet the Press programme in the Eranakulam Press Club on April 5, 2014. As for Anthony’s statement, Karat asked which world was the former living in, so as to hope for a return of the Congress rule, while its loss was imminent. It was only a person like Antony who could say that Left parties would support the Congress. Recalling the 1996 situation when the Congress led by P V Narasimha Rao did not try to form a government as it was in a minority, Karat said a similar situation is likely to be repeated this time and the Congress, currently having 206 seats, will hardly get a hundred seats now. He asked: Is Antony hoping to form a government through undemocratic means? While the people of India are fed up with the Congress as price raise and unemployment have increased during the reign of the UPA government, Kerala too has not benefited even though the Manmohan Singh government has as many as eight ministers from Kerala. It is natural that the performance of A K Antony and his ilk too would be analysed in these elections. Karat also asserted that the BJP’s attempt to utilise the failure of Congress would not succeed. The CPI(M) leader also addressed huge gatherings of LDF workers in Alappuzha and Eranakulam districts.   YECHURY’S CAMPAIGN IN Kerala, the election scene got more vibrant with the presence of Sitaram Yechuri, a member of the CPI(M) Polit Bureau. His campaign started from various centres in Chalakkudi in Thrissur where film artist Innocent is in the contest. On Friday, April 4, he was at Mannuthi where he reached along with A C Moideen, district secretary of the CPI(M), and was greeted by thunderous slogans raised from thousands of throats. Slogans in English and Malayalam echoed everywhere. This was the story wherever he went. Every speech he made had a pinch of humour which evoked clapping. So much so that when he greeted the masses in two or three Malayalam sentences, his broken Malayalam too amused the people and received applause. He then tendered an apology for his inability to communicate with the gathering in the Kerala people’s language. However, Yechuri’s campaign trail proved to be a study class for the masses. In his 40 minutes speech, Yechury analysed the national politics thoroughly, expressing the hope that Kerala would duly contribute to the formation of a secular non-Congress alternative. He ridiculed the match fixing between the Congress and the BJP by citing the case of Sreesanth, a cricketer from Kerala. He appealed the masses to vote for his old friend since student days, C N Jayadevan, the LDF candidate in Thrissur constituency, and hoped that he would get a chance to welcome him in the parliament building. Jayadevan’s opponent, P C Chacko, has proved his ability only in a cover-up of the shocking 2G spectrum corruption case, in his capacity as the JPC chairman, Yechuri said. On April 5, Yechury campaigned in the Palakkad constituency.  Earlier, on April 3, 2014, Yechuri addressed a Meet the Press programme in Eranakulam Press Club, where he expressed the hope that Kerala would show the way to build an alternative at the centre. Alternative policies alone could make a better India, he said. The CPI(M) leader asserted that only a non-Congress, non-BJP government could solve the problems facing India, like price rise, unemployment and insecurity. Kerala, the first ever state to make history by electing a communist government through ballot paper, would definitely pave the way for an alternative government at the centre. There exist two Indias now. One is the shining India of a miniscule number of the superrich. The second is a suffering India of the common people. The alternative mooted by the Left aims at creating an India for the people. While the Congress and BJP pursue the same anti-people policies, they have put up corrupt leaders like Ashok Chavan and Yedyurappa respectively as their candidates, Yechury pointed out. BRINDA MEETS RADHA’S SIBLINGS AFTER the gruesome murder of Radha, Congress leaders and workers competed with one another to tarnish the image of her family while the police and government machinery tried to hush up the case. The murder occurred in the Congress block committee office in Nilambur Mandalam committee in Malappuram district. But the arrival of CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat on April 4, 2014, brought solace to Vijayan, Bhaskaran, Rugmini and Shanta, the siblings of Radha, who was a sweeper in the said Congress office. To recall, Radha’s body was found in a pond 30 km away from the said Congress office on February 10, this year. She was brutally raped and murdered before her body, wrapped in a sack, was thrown into the pond by two Congress leaders. One of them was a staff member of the transport and power minister, Aryadan Muhammed. Brinda Karat met the siblings and other relatives of Radha in the midst of her hectic election campaign in Wayanad constituency. She asked the people to remain cautious about and foil any move to hush up this case of gruesome rape and murder of an unmarried woman --- a crime committed in an office of the main ruling party. In this connection the CPI(M) leader also referred to the dubious death of Sunanda Pushkar, the wife of Shashi Tharoor, a central minister, in mysterious circumstances. Brinda said the investigation in Radha murder case did not proceed correctly and the concerned minister intervened in the course of the investigation. The police tried to tamper with the evidence and remained reluctant to seal the office where the murder had occurred. She assured Radha’s relatives that she would definitely take this case to the National Human Rights Commission and the National Commission for Women.  Earlier on April 2, 2014, Brinda Karat landed at the Nedumbasseri Airport in Kerala after her hectic campaigns in Haryana and Punjab; for her this was the beginning of yet another hectic campaign in Kerala: The hot summer day, however, did not prevent the people from waiting for her. The CPI(M) leader’s first programme was in Alathur constituency, where SFI leader and sitting MP, P K Biju, is in the contest. Thousands of people, including women and children, eagerly heard her speech at Kunnamkulam at 11 a m.  While ruing that “Our country is being ruled by a most corrupt government in the history of India,” she ridiculed A K Antony who boasts of his morality but keeps silent on the huge corruption scams. “Has his morality gone into the Arabian Sea?” she asked. In a scathing attack on the union food minister, K V Thomas, Brinda said his name would go down into history as a protector of rats as he keeps the foodgrains in godowns without distributing them among the hungry people. After addressing a press conference at Thrissur Press Club, Brinda Karat moved to Vadakkancheri and then to Peringottukurissi. The last point was in Alathur town where she addressed a huge gathering in Desheeya Maidanam, urging the people to vote for P K Biju, a hard working youth.