Q: In the background of competitive communalism by the TMC and the BJP in West Bengal what is our approach to revive the Left? Can you explain?

K Raju, Trichy

A: The recent communal violence in Bashirhat in North 24 Parganas district is an example of the growing communal activities which are taking place in West Bengal. The BJP and RSS have been conducting communal activities through various organisations like the Hindu Jagran Manch, Hindu Sanhati Manch and so on. Communal clashes took place in Dhulagarh, Chandranagar and other places. The rise of the communal forces has been facilitated by the authoritarian attacks on democracy and the terror tactics against the CPI(M) and the Left. This has been compounded by the TMC pandering to fundamentalist and communal forces amongst the minority community.

Communal politics is getting a fillip in West Bengal due to the inflammatory propaganda of the Sangh Parivar. On Ram Navami day, the RSS outfits took out processions throughout the state with people carrying swords and young girls carrying knives. Instead of firmly countering these communal activities, the TMC government seeks to cater to the Muslim communal forces to consolidate its influence among the minorities. Both parties are thereby creating grounds for communal polarisation in the state.

During the existence of the Left Front government for thirty four years and in the two decades before that when the Left was on the ascendant, communal forces had been marginalised and given no opportunity to raise their heads.

The TMCs virulent attack on democracy and opportunist politics have provided the opening for the BJP to purvey Hindutva communalism.

The CPI(M) and the Left have been active in the past few weeks mobilising the people against the communal danger. There have been marches for communal harmony and against the communal forces in all the districts of West Bengal.

The CPI(M) and the Left led mass organisations are taking up a whole range of issues affecting the peasantry, the working class and other sections of the working people. The Nabanna march called by the peasants and agricultural workers organisations on May 22 saw the participation of lakhs of people. In the brutal police repression over 900 people were injured, of which 100 were seriously hurt. The Left Front is also fighting against the anti-democratic laws and the corruption scandals of the TMC.

It is by building united struggles and mass movements that the corrupt authoritarian TMC and the communal BJP can be fought. For the CPI(M) and the Left to advance in West Bengal it is necessary to fight both parties without relaxing the struggle against either.