Fascism debate reaches CPI(M) top body, Sitaram Yechury sticks to stand

“We are saying the BJP acts as the political arm of RSS. The RSS has a fascistic agenda, and that fascistic agenda is an effort to try and replace the secular, democratic, constitutional republic with their concept of a Hindu Rashtra…. So it is not a fascist state but the movement towards fascism…which we will resist,” Yechury said Monday, at the end of the end of the three-day meeting of the central committee.

While Yechury said the meeting did not discuss the issue, he added that the “party position was clarified”. “This is the party position and everybody knows that,” he said, without naming Karat.

In an article published recently in The Indian Express, Karat had characterised the Modi government as exhibiting “authoritarianism”, not “fascism”. The committee decided to build anti-communal platforms with democratic and secular forces, although Yechury pointed out that “it has nothing to do with elections or electoral alliances”.