People's Democracy

CC Adopts The Draft Political

Resolution For The 18TH Party Congress

B Prasant

MEETING in Kolkata between January 8 and 10, the central committee of the CPI(M) discussed and adopted the Draft Political Resolution for the 18th Party Congress to be held in Delhi during the first week of April.  The political resolution would give a direction to the CPI(M) in the reality of evolving developments, national and international.  The central committee also finalised the CPI(M)’s stand for the assembly elections going to take place in Bihar, Jharkhand, and Haryana.

Addressing a media conference in the afternoon of January 10 at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, Polit Bureau member of the CPI(M) Prakash Karat said that the Draft Political Resolution would be released for comprehensive discussion in the Party after January 15 and amendments as well as suggestions would be received from both Party members and Party units from all over the country for consideration. 

Polit Bureau members of the CPI(M), Sitaram Yechury, Biman Basu, and Anil Biswas were present at the media conference.

Prakash Karat said that the CPI(M) “has been deeply involved in organising relief work for Tsunami victims, especially in Tamil Nadu, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and in the coastal regions of Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.”  The CPI(M) has set up a relief fund; it has contributed to the prime minister’s relief fund, and is in the process of stepping up direct help to the tsunami victims.  It already runs relief camps in the affected areas.

Karat noted that the CPI(M) with its strong presence in the three Tamil Nadu districts of Nagapattinam, Cuddalore, and Kanyakumari was conducting extensive relief work among the victims of the natural disaster.

On the question of assembly elections and poll strategy, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury said that the principal aim of the CPI(M) would be to ensure a massive defeat for the BJP and its allies.  Prakash Karat commented that the political condition of the communal forces was in a depleted state and that they were going to fare worse and worse in the elections coming up in 2005-6 and beyond. 

The CPI(M) believed that a coming together of the secular forces during the assembly polls would ensure that the BJP and its running mates are comprehensively routed. The CPI(M) will contest 11 seats in Jharkhand, 5 in Haryana, and 14 in Bihar.  Answering questions from the media persons, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury said that the CPI(M) would not have electoral alliance with Congress in any of the states going to the polls.

On the performance of the Congress-led UPA government, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury said that on the issue of price rise, the CPI(M) had always made its position clear that prices should be brought down and the public distribution system strengthened.  Roll back of the petroleum goods’ prices, too, was immediately needed as the effect of the enhanced prices was having a cascading effect on the general price level while robbing the people of their purchasing power.

The UPA government has also done little, despite promises, to restore the rate of interest of the Employees’ Provident Fund to 9.5 per cent which otherwise was affecting the pool of savings of the people. The CPI(M) also stood opposed to the privatisation of the Pension Fund of government employees.  Karat also criticised the pro-ordinance attitude of the Congress, which would glibly bypass the parliament and resort to ordinances to set up the Pension Regulatory and Development Authority.  The union government has chosen to go in for another ordinance towards amending the Patents Act, jeopardising national interests. 

The CPI(M), said Prakash Karat, also opposed the eagerness of the union government to allow take over by foreign banks of Indian private banks by allowing 74 per cent of the shares to be bought up by the former.

Prakash Karat said that the CPI(M) criticised  the attitude of the Congress-led UPA government, which showed alacrity to work for the interests of big capital, domestic and foreign, and delayed taking pro-people measures.

Prakash Karat noted that the CPI(M) and the Left had extended support to the Congress-led UPA government based on implementation of the Common Minimum Programme.  The Congress-led union government must ensure that the provisions of the CMP were implemented, sooner rather than later.  Issues like the women’s reservations, guarantee of rural employment for 100 days, rural development, and protection of the right to strike should be taken up in good earnest by the UPA-run union government.