Communist Party of India (Marxist)

19^th Congress

Anil Biswas Nagar

Coimbatore

March 29 to April 3, 2008

Resolution Adopted at the XIX Congress

Against “Hindutva” Forces on March 31, 2008

The XIX Congress of the CPI (M) notes with concern the fact that the danger of communal polarization driven by the divisive agenda of the “Hindutva” forces continues unabated.  Despite the defeat of the BJP and its allies in the last general election, it seeks to spread the communal virus to various spheres of our social, political, academic and cultural life.  The BJP has been able to capitalize on the failures of Congress state governments and consequent discontent to win assembly elections in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, as an alliance partner in Punjab and has retained Gujarat. 

The various wings of the sangh parivar have kept up their campaign of using various issues to polarize society. Whether it is the Ram Sethu issue, or the campaign against the artist M.F. Hussain, or the attack on the Art Department at the Sayaji Rao University of Baroda in the name of resisting insults to Hindu deities, or the vandalism indulged in the Department of History, Delhi University in a bid to protest against the so-called distortion in the presentation of Rama in a history book – the work of a renowned scholar, Ramanujam – or whether it is the way in which it communalizes the issue of terrorist attacks by demonizing an entire community, it is losing no opportunity to intensify anti-minority feelings.

BJP-ruled states have witnessed attacks on religious minorities coupled with various methods of saffronising government programmes. In Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Orissa (where the BJP is part of a coalition government) and Karnataka (where it was in a coalition government), Christians and Muslims along with their places of worship, their homes and their means of livelihood have been attacked regularly.  BJP governments regularly raise the bogey of religious conversions not only to whip up communal hatred and engineer attacks but also to make anti-conversion laws more undemocratic.

It is most unfortunate, therefore, that the UPA government, whose formation was welcomed and made possible by secular forces has been unable to confront the “Hindutva” forces and on the contrary has adopted a vacillating position. This is seen in its unwillingness to punish those guilty of complicity in communal rioting and carnage and to help victims of rioting and carnage to access justice, rehabilitation and compensation and to punish the guilty. The Maharashtra government, a coalition of two UPA partners, the Congress and the NCP, has done nothing to punish those held guilty by the Srikrishna Commission that enquired into the riots of 1992 and 1993.  Many of these are police officers and also political leaders of the Shiv Sena and BJP. It is only the Supreme Court that has made some efforts in the direction to bring justice  by transferring some of the worst cases of the Gujarat genocide to be tried outside the state and by recently constituting a team comprising persons from outside the state to enquire into some of the worst killings. The UPA government failed to refer these cases to the CBI.  The UPA government is yet to pass a comprehensive legislation to deal with communal violence and compensation and rehabilitation of the victims. This Congress demands that such a Bill be drafted and passed at the earliest.

The XIX Congress of the CPI(M) takes pride in the record of the Left-led governments of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura in maintaining communal harmony despite the fact that communal and fundamentalist forces are actively engaged in efforts to foment tension and clashes.

This Congress also takes serious note of the recent campaign launched against the CPI(M) by the RSS, which has stooped to the extent of attacking CPI(M) offices in different parts of the country and the family members of Party leaders. Prior to that, the RSS has gone on a hate and murder campaign against CPI(M) cadres in Kerala. These attacks constitute nothing less than an attack on democracy itself and must be condemned and resisted by all democratic sections of our society.

This  XIX Congress calls on all its units to fight such  communal forces at all levels – ideological, political, social – and  to mobilize secular forces in the struggle.