Below we publish excerpts from the messages of greetings received from the All India Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. These messages were read out in the inaugural session of the Party Congress. Since the National Council meeting of the All India Forward Bloc and the Central Committee meeting of the CPI(ML) were held during the same period as our Party Congress, they could not attend. 

All India Forward Bloc

THIS important 23rd Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is being held at a time when our country is confronting serious socio, political and economic crisis due to the anti-people policies of the Modi government. The Modi government is undermining the time-tested democratic and secular character of our motherland. The vast majority of the people in the country are taking to the streets to protest against the government policies. We are confident that your Party Congress will chalk out appropriate programme to strengthen our struggle against these communal and fascist forces.

We are of the opinion that our country is demanding a unified platform of all secular, democratic and Left forces. This unity will not be materialised just before elections. It can be developed only through protracted struggle against the autocratic policies of the government. The CPI(M) has a major role in this regard.

We hope that this important Congress of your Party will also discuss the crisis being faced by the Left parties of the country in the contemporary period. We are relentlessly organising mass movements of the farmers, working people, youth, student, women and other marginalised people. But our organisations are unable to translate these people’s resentments into popular votes during elections. A concerted effort is needed to examine the lacunae in our movements and we should adopt collective measures to rectify our shortcomings.

Once again I wish all success to your 23rd Party Congress and hope that the deliberations and resolutions going to be adopted in this historical Congress will strengthen the Left unity in our country.

Debabrata Biswas

General Secretary, All India Forward Bloc

Revolutionary Socialist Party

THE Central Committee of the RSP, at the outset, wishes the 23rd Party Congress a grand success and it would certainly set the direction for ensuring the all-encompassing Left-democratic movement on the national plane. This is of course the main cry of the millions of downtrodden people of our country. We must have to combat the unabated anti people aggression of the present NDA government at the centre and most of the state governments. The Modi government in particular is arrogantly keen to subserve the interests of ugly profit maximisation bid of the international oligarchy led by the US imperialism.

We, the Left particularly, the Marxist-Leninist political parties are entrusted with the responsibility of promoting the common people’s interests by all means. The fascist and hydra headed RSS, with the advantage of the Modi government is all out at the present to demolish the unity and integrity of the toiling people. The united Left movement must philosophically combat these horrific attempts. The New Education Policy or other retrograde socio-cultural policies of the Modi government are simply an insidious attempt to push the tendentious theories of Hindutva primacy at the expense of modern scientific knowledge.

Manoj Bhattacharya

General Secretary, RSP

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation

DEAR Comrades,

Since 2014, we have been facing the disastrous Modi regime in India.  With every passing day, the fascist agenda of the government is becoming bolder and its aggression more intense.  In the name of development public assets are being brazenly handed over to a few corporations, and in the name of a strong nation the rights of citizens and states enshrined in the Constitution are being systematically eroded. Dissent is being incriminated and silenced, and rational, progressive voices are being relentlessly stifled in the academic, media and cultural spheres. Clearly, modern India has never faced such a severe and sustained assault on the diversity that defines India and the basic democratic framework that has sustained India’s unity and advance, however retarded, till now. 

The Communist movement in India is now a century old.  The RSS too will be celebrating its centenary three years later. During the freedom movement and for much of India’s early post-independence decades, the RSS remained weak, isolated and hugely discredited, but today from the vantage position of power at the centre and in most of India’s states, and thanks to its growing penetration in most of India’s institutions, it thinks it has reached a now-or-never moment to redesign and redefine India according to its Hindu supremacist and anti-democratic agenda and outlook. The onus is on Indian Communists and other progressive forces to foil this RSS design.

The circumstances are absolutely compelling for all of us in the Left to unite and fight back with all our strength. The coming days are full of challenges, and we hope we can march together to carry the battle for democracy forward.  Let us unite to fight, and fight to win.

Dipankar Bhattacharya

General Secretary, CPI(ML) Liberation