THE 21st Congress of the CPI(M) will be held from April 14 to 19, 2015 at Visakhapatnam. Visakhapatnam is a port city in Andhra Pradesh which is an important industrial centre. It is home to major public sector units like the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Hindustan Shipyard, Bharat Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd (BHEL) and the HPCL Refinery. The trade union movement is strong and the working class is organised in the industrial sector. It is appropriate that the CPI(M) Congress is being held at such a venue as the working class movement has to play a leading role in countering the rightwing offensive. The CPI(M) is holding its 21st Congress at Visakhapatnam at the time when the Left and democratic forces in the country are facing various challenges. Firstly, there is the neo-liberal offensive of the Modi government. During the last ten months, we have seen the BJP-led government aggressively transferring the resources of the country to the big corporates and foreign capital. Mineral and coal reserves, insurance, railways and land, all sectors are being opened up for big business – Indian and foreign. Secondly, the corollary of this pro-big business and pro-rich policies are a vicious attack on the working people and their rights. Farmers everywhere are in distress due to falling prices for their produce, increasing costs of inputs and lack of public investment in agriculture and irrigation. Employment opportunities are shrinking for the agricultural workers and the rural poor. The rights of the working class are under attack through the changes proposed in the labour laws, adivasis face dispossession and displacement under the new mining and mineral law. Thirdly, the Modi government has opened the way for the Hindutva forces to advance their communal agenda. The RSS is dictating the agenda for the educational system, research and cultural institutions. There is a vicious campaign against the minorities. They face threats of re-conversion and attacks on their places of worships and violation of their food and cultural rights with the acts such as the banning of beef. The Hindutva reactionary and patriarchal values seek to subordinate women and impose social and dress codes to prevent their access to public life and public spaces. Fourthly, the Modi government is actively seeking to ally with US imperialism. The foreign policy of the Modi government is geared strategically to align India with the goals of United States for Asia. The Modi government is surrendering to US pressures for opening up the economy further to foreign capital and for diluting the patents and intellectual property rights. Fifthly, the BJP was able to get a majority in the Lok Sabha winning only 31 per cent of the vote. It does not command a majority in the Rajya Sabha. It is, therefore, seeking to impose its dictates in an undemocratic fashion. The resort to ordinances, the intolerance shown to secular and democratic intelligentsia and cultural artists are all indications of an authoritarian type of regime. This is a danger which emanates from the alliance between big business and Hindutva. The way the Modi government is proceeding as seen in the ten month period of its rule is set to accentuate the contradiction between the ruling classes and the people. The large scale distress of farmers, the assault on the livelihood of the people especially the vast mass of working people in the unorganised sector and the failure to provide jobs to the youth – are all bound to generate mass discontent. The CPI(M) and the mass organisations have to be in the lead to take up the issues of the working people and conduct struggles in defence of the rights of the people and movements against the Modi government’s policies. Already, within a short span of time, popular discontent is growing. Various sections of the working people are coming out for struggles to defend their livelihood and rights. There is a widespread movement building up against the Land Acquisition Ordinance. All the Central Trade Unions are unitedly struggling against the changes in the labour laws. Coal workers conducted a two-day strike against the Coal Bill which provide for denationalisation; the insurance workers conducted a strike against the increase in FDI. The CPI(M) and the Left suffered reverses in the Lok Sabha elections. The Left has been weakened by the losses in West Bengal where the Party and the Left Front have been under serious attack. Therefore, the topmost priority today is the building of the independent strength of the Party. The Draft Political Resolution for the Congress emphasises this as the key task. The CPI(M) must recover ground in West Bengal, grow further in Kerala and consolidate its expansion in Tripura. Along with this, the Party has to initiate struggles and movements of the basic classes; develop local struggles on a sustained basis and take up social issues to rally the oppressed sections of society. The Party should work for the broadest mobilisation of all the secular and democratic forces against the communal danger. There has to be a vigorous political and ideological campaign against the politics and ideology of all the bourgeois parties. The Draft Political Resolution has also called for building the broadest campaign and movements by the class and mass organisations. The united platforms of mass organisations for joint struggles is the way to mobilise the widest sections against the rightwing offensive. The CPI(M) is steadfast in its support to anti-imperialist struggles around the world. The Congress will reiterate its support to the Palestinian people in their struggle for an independent State; it will express solidarity with Cuba for an end to the economic blockade and support the Venezuelan government and people who are facing increased threats from the United States in the form of sanctions. The role of the CPI(M) and the Left has become all the more relevant and crucial in the present political situation. The Party Congress will give the direction to enhance the Party’s role and the Left’s intervention. The Congress will call for strengthening and widening Left unity. All the Left parties, groups and individuals must be brought together on a broad Left platform. Steps should be taken to establish coordination between the Left-led mass organisations. The Party Congress will provide the direction for the fight against the Modi government and the BJP. It will call for an integrated fight against neo-liberal policies and against communalism. It will provide the direction for building united mass struggles and movements of different sections of the people. As against the BJP and the Congress, the Party Congress will set out the way forward to rally all the Left and democratic forces, so that we are able to go towards building a strong Left and democratic alliance which alone can be the real alternative to the bourgeois-landlord politics and policies. The 21st Congress will be a landmark in providing a new direction to the Party to advance with a correct political line. It will equip the Party to go to the people to mobilise them for the cause of democracy, secularism, social justice and a Left and democratic alternative.