Comrades, I am happy to greet you all on the occasion of the 21st Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Prakash Karat, General Secretary of the Party, has explained the major tasks before the 21st Congress. Five leaders of the Left parties are attending the present inaugural session. While greeting the Congress, they have made valuable observations and suggestions. On behalf of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), I thank you for participating in the inaugural session and greeting the Congress. I thank all the other guests who have attended this session. The unity of the Left parties is important in the present political situation. It can act as the nucleus of the forces that can be rallied against the neo-liberal economic policies, the attempts of the RSS-led Hindutva forces to advance their communal agenda, the pro-imperialist tilt in the foreign policies and the growing trends of authoritarianism of the BJP-led Modi government. The period after the 20th Congress witnessed many important developments. The CPI(M) has been consistently fighting against the neo-liberal economic policies and is in the forefront in the struggles of the working class, peasantry, agricultural workers, middle class, artisans and so on. The Party is consistently organizing struggles to defend the socially-oppressed sections, dalits, adivasis and minorities. The Party is in the forefront in the struggles to defend the rights of women and to fight against the growing attacks on women. The Party is always in the forefront in the struggles to defend the democratic rights of the people and secularism. The Party is consistently working for strengthening its solidarity with the Left, progressive and anti-imperialist forces to oppose imperialist aggression and maneouvres. The Party is active in building united struggles of the workers, agricultural workers, peasants, middle class and other toiling sections. The development of the united platform of all trade unions and the successful general strikes and united actions were landmarks in the history of the working class movement in India. Similar efforts are being taken to unite all peasants and agricultural workers organizations and certain social movements taking up the issue of land and land grabbing by corporates. The Party is also active to build similar united actions among other sections of people on their genuine demands. In the present situation, it is of paramount importance to build and strengthen the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in order to successfully carry out the tasks. It is necessary to make the Communist Party of India (Marxist) more vibrant and militant to launch powerful struggles of all sections of people. There is also need to strengthen the ideological foundations of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The tasks we undertake in the Party Congress – the review of the political-tactical line, the new political-tactical line, the studies we undertook in the changes in the socio-economic conditions since liberalization and their impact on the various classes and sections of people and the review of the functioning of the Party organization and mass fronts – will help in concretizing the tasks for building a powerful Communist Party of India (Marxist). I am sure that the 21st Congress will successfully complete all its tasks and the 21st Congress will be a landmark in the history of the CPI(M). I thank you all. Let us unite to build a strong and vibrant CPI(M)!