‘Narendra Modi is merely following Manmohan Singh’
By Alka Dhupkar
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on the Modi govt’s one year in power, the Aam Aadmi Party ‘replacing’ the Left Front, and the beef ban in Maharashtra.
Dubbing the Narendra Modi government’s performance in its first year as a “disaster”, CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said in Mumbai on Tuesday that the government will be better known for bypassing Parliamentary procedures.
From calling the shots in the UPA government’s first term in 2004 to the rout in the 2014 general elections, how did the CPI(M) slide to irrelevance so quickly?
There have been issues, mistakes, which have been identified, analysed and discussed. First, we have to arrest our decline and retrieve our lost ground. Our vote bank has constantly gone down since 2009. But, for the first time in the West Bengal municipal elections (held recently), the vote share of the Left Front has gone up by about 1 per cent. We have successfully arrested our decline. Then there are other retrieval problems in West Bengal.
Any specific mistake that you want to point out?
Everything is in the public domain… dealing with the land acquisition in Bengal, it was a huge blow to our electoral position and played an important role in the Bengal politics. We also have to restructure and clean up the organisation.
Several political observers have said that the Left Front has slid into such irrelevance in Bengal that the forthcoming Assembly elections in that state will be a two-horse race, between the Trinamool and the BJP…
As I mentioned, we have increased the vote share in the West Bengal civic elections. The BJP is the distant third in the state.
The Left Front doesn’t have any significant youth leaders. Do you agree that you have failed to charm the youth, something that Narendra Modi has been very successful at?
There is no such thing, no such crisis at all. Several youth organisations under our banner are doing very well at the college-level politics. Modi created illusions and raised people’s hopes. The prime minister says that NRIs are now filled with pride with the working style of this government. But what about our own people? A large section of youngsters are demanding answers, and they are veering towards us, because we are the only party that has a clear vision on three preliminary things, such as healthcare, education and job opportunities.
Has the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) captured the space ceded by the Left?
I don’t see things in terms of space. The AAP has taken up issues we have always championed, and they were able to connect with the people of Delhi in a much better way than we could manage. We are not hostile to the AAP but they don’t have clarity on economic policies and communal issues. Maybe the infighting in the AAP is a result of such lack of clarity.
Your views on Modi’s one year as the PM…
Mr Modi is merely pursuing Manmohan Singh’s economic policies… it’s just that he’s going it aggressively. Communal polarisation is growing. Modi is patronising the RSS and the democratic institutions are suffering. Did the inflation go down as promised? In spite of all this we have a PM who is more interested in dishonouring the Opposition on the foreign soil.
The BJP has dismissed talks of communal polarisation as loose talk.
Of course they will. But who created ‘Love Jihad’, or ‘Ghar Vapsi’? They are trying to revamp the nation’s education and research institutions on communal lines. Going to the Science Congress and replacing history with mythology is not our creation. They have created a hype of aspirations and now, they have failed to fulfil the promises, so polarisation is increasing to divert people’s anger.
What do you think of the beef ban in Maharashtra?
No party can, and should, dictate to people what they should be eating. It violates the public’s Constitutional rights.
The Congress, your former partner, is also in the doldrums. Will there be a tie-up for the West Bengal elections?
No, there is no question of any alliance with the Congress. The point was, since 2009, our vote share was declining. But that’s not the case anymore. We don’t need such tie-ups.
Will Rahul Gandhi be a factor for aligning or not aligning with the Congress?
But there is not going to be an alliance in the first place. Our primacy is based on issues, not personalities. The Congress polices have not changed from the past and the BJP is pursuing the same policies besides communalism.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on the Modi govt’s one year in power, the Aam Aadmi Party ‘replacing’ the Left Front, and the beef ban in Maharashtra.
Dubbing the Narendra Modi government’s performance in its first year as a “disaster”, CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said in Mumbai on Tuesday that the government will be better known for bypassing Parliamentary procedures.
In an exclusive interview with Mumbai Mirror after addressing an ‘Adivasi’ rally at the Azad Maidan, Yechury, 62, said that a “dangerous trend of rise of communal forces has emerged after the BJP came to power”. He also spoke about the “mistakes” committed by his party which led to a “uniform erosion” in West Bengal.
From calling the shots in the UPA government’s first term in 2004 to the rout in the 2014 general elections, how did the CPI(M) slide to irrelevance so quickly?
There have been issues, mistakes, which have been identified, analysed and discussed. First, we have to arrest our decline and retrieve our lost ground. Our vote bank has constantly gone down since 2009. But, for the first time in the West Bengal municipal elections (held recently), the vote share of the Left Front has gone up by about 1 per cent. We have successfully arrested our decline. Then there are other retrieval problems in West Bengal.
Any specific mistake that you want to point out?
Everything is in the public domain… dealing with the land acquisition in Bengal, it was a huge blow to our electoral position and played an important role in the Bengal politics. We also have to restructure and clean up the organisation.
Several political observers have said that the Left Front has slid into such irrelevance in Bengal that the forthcoming Assembly elections in that state will be a two-horse race, between the Trinamool and the BJP…
As I mentioned, we have increased the vote share in the West Bengal civic elections. The BJP is the distant third in the state.
The Left Front doesn’t have any significant youth leaders. Do you agree that you have failed to charm the youth, something that Narendra Modi has been very successful at?
There is no such thing, no such crisis at all. Several youth organisations under our banner are doing very well at the college-level politics. Modi created illusions and raised people’s hopes. The prime minister says that NRIs are now filled with pride with the working style of this government. But what about our own people? A large section of youngsters are demanding answers, and they are veering towards us, because we are the only party that has a clear vision on three preliminary things, such as healthcare, education and job opportunities.
Has the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) captured the space ceded by the Left?
I don’t see things in terms of space. The AAP has taken up issues we have always championed, and they were able to connect with the people of Delhi in a much better way than we could manage. We are not hostile to the AAP but they don’t have clarity on economic policies and communal issues. Maybe the infighting in the AAP is a result of such lack of clarity.
Your views on Modi’s one year as the PM…
Mr Modi is merely pursuing Manmohan Singh’s economic policies… it’s just that he’s going it aggressively. Communal polarisation is growing. Modi is patronising the RSS and the democratic institutions are suffering. Did the inflation go down as promised? In spite of all this we have a PM who is more interested in dishonouring the Opposition on the foreign soil.
The BJP has dismissed talks of communal polarisation as loose talk.
Of course they will. But who created ‘Love Jihad’, or ‘Ghar Vapsi’? They are trying to revamp the nation’s education and research institutions on communal lines. Going to the Science Congress and replacing history with mythology is not our creation. They have created a hype of aspirations and now, they have failed to fulfil the promises, so polarisation is increasing to divert people’s anger.
What do you think of the beef ban in Maharashtra?
No party can, and should, dictate to people what they should be eating. It violates the public’s Constitutional rights.
The Congress, your former partner, is also in the doldrums. Will there be a tie-up for the West Bengal elections?
No, there is no question of any alliance with the Congress. The point was, since 2009, our vote share was declining. But that’s not the case anymore. We don’t need such tie-ups.
Will Rahul Gandhi be a factor for aligning or not aligning with the Congress?
But there is not going to be an alliance in the first place. Our primacy is based on issues, not personalities. The Congress polices have not changed from the past and the BJP is pursuing the same policies besides communalism.
