The 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) salutes the 104 martyrs who sacrificed their precious lives in the period since the last Party Congress. It extends its warm greetings to the courageous fighters in West Bengal who have defended the red flag and the Left Front and Left movement in the face of unprecedented and multiple forms of violence unleashed by the Trinamool Congress with the backing of the State police and under the patronage of its top leaders, including the Chief Minister in league with reactionary forces. Subversion of democracy and democratic rights is widespread today in West Bengal. The crimes against CPI(M) and Left Front sympathisers, workers and leaders cover a wide range and include: murder; physical attacks causing grievous injuries; rape; burning down homes; burning down Party offices; eviction from houses, realization of huge amount of fines; forcibly grabbing agricultural land; removing people from the muster roll of contractors; coercing people to leave the red flag and the CPI(M) by threatening to take away jobs, livelihood; and denying Left sympathisers and workers entitlements such as ration cards, MNREGA work, and scholarships for children. Panchayats or municipal bodies where Left members have been elected are starved of funds and not allowed to function. Elected members of these bodies are forced to resign and those panchayats have been usurped by the ruling party. In other cases, they are forced to sign documents against their will or face violence against their family members, including their children. The police have been in connivance with these criminal, authoritarian activities. Instead of filing FIRs against the guilty, they have filed false cases against thousands of Left workers, even against the victims of gruesome terror. The 21st Congress holds that the historical experience of authoritarian regimes in different parts of the world is being re-enacted in the cruelest form in Bengal, where the assault against political opponents has now expanded to include intolerance and coercion against all dissent. Under the TMC, Bengal is in the grip of a regime that has utter contempt for basic democratic norms. Even as the TMC involvement in the Sarada and other chit fund scams involving thousands of crores of rupees is exposed before the people, the TMC is becoming more desperate, making wild charges to stem the growing resistance of the people. A reign of terror has also engulfed educational and academic institutions. Democratic functioning in educational institutions, cooperatives and other forums has been dismantled. The Human Rights Commission, Women’s Commission, and State Election Commission have been made defunct. The 21st Party Congress notes that the policies of the TMC, which encourage fundamentalism of different forms, are providing a fertile ground for fascistic organisations like the RSS and other members of the Hindutva brigade to expand their presence in Bengal. Bengal has been and is the standard bearer of the Communist and Left movement in the country and therefore is the target of most cruel form of attack by the ruling classes at all levels. The 21st Congress calls upon the Party all over India to stand in solidarity with the fight for democracy, secular values, and peoples’ advance that is now being fought by the Left Front and the CPI(M) in West Bengal, to counter the slander being spread against the Left Front Governments, and to defend the historic gains of the people during 34 years of Left Front rule.