ollam: The CPM in Kerala is plotting a twin strategy to recapture power for a historic third time. The party will project itself as both the victim and the messiah.
It will tell voters that all political parties in Kerala, led by the Congress and the BJP and spurred on by minority extremist and terror outfits, have come together to fight the CPM. At the same time, it will position itself as the only force that could bring big ticket development to Kerala.
The first strategy was outlined in the working report presented by CPM state secretary M V Govindan at the CPM State Conference on March 6. The second ploy is the essence of the ‘Pathways to Nava Kerala’ document that was presented later in the day at the Conference by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
At a press conference held at the Conference venue on the first day, March 6, Govindan said that intra-party dynamics of anti-Left forces have changed over the years. Earlier, when the Sangh Parivar was not a dominant political force, he said the BJP votes used to flow to the Congress. Then, the Co-Le-B (Congress-League-BJP) alliance took shape; the experiment failed to take off, with the LDF securing commendable wins in Vadakara and Beypore in 1991.
“Now, votes are flowing the other way, from the UDF to the BJP,” Govindan said. As proof, he held up the Thrissur Lok Sabha result in which Suresh Gopi secured a massive win. “Congress lost 86,000 votes while we gained over 19,000 votes,” he said. Fringe and extremist Muslim groups are also getting UDF support, he said. Govindan claimed that the SDPI had won a local body ward in Thiruvananthapuram’s Pangode panchayat with the Congress support. “In short, minority politics is taking a new turn,” Govindan said.
He said that the Muslim League had once taken religious organisations along with it, a clear reference to Samastha Kerala Jem-iyyathul Ulama, which the CPM is now actively wooing. “Now the League has struck alliances with outfits that strive for an Islamic state like the Jamaat-e-Islami and terror outfits like SDPI,” he said.
Govindan sounded aghast that the League was blind to the dangers of such an alliance. “What is the problem in doing so is the League’s new thinking,” he said. “This has caused a situation in which minorities that hold secularism dear are goaded to take the path of communal politics. This will have far reaching consequences,” he said.
Further, Govindan said that outfits like JeI and SDPI, who once fielded their own candidates in elections, were not doing so now. “They are voting for the UDF. Clearly, the Congress is the beneficiary,” he said. And when they contest, particularly in, local body polls, they will get UDF votes in return.
The CPM state secretary said this new coalition of UDF and Islamist forces was born out of the need to prevent the growing influence of CPM among minorities, even in Muslim-dominated areas. While the UDF, by aligning with JeI and SDPI, was trying to push the Muslim community into communalism, Govindan argued that the BJP was attempting to further marginalise Muslims from other minorities through the creation of organisations like CASA (Christian Association & Alliance For Social Action). The sole spirit that animates CASA is Muslim hatred, he said. “CASA is an example of a deliberate attempt by the RSS to keep the minorities divided in Kerala,” Govindan said.
“If you look at it, all of them have CPM as the main enemy. Congress, BJP, SDPI, and Jamaat-e-Islami have the CPM as their main enemy. A pattern can be discerned. It is their objective to form a united front against the CPM,” he said.
In this new tactical line of the CPM, there is a subtle attempt to woo the Muslim community without arousing in the majority community any suspicion of appeasement. This is achieved by painting the Muslims, too, as victims but, in the same breath, launching a strident onslaught against Jamaaat-e-Islami and SDPI. Notably, the CPM working report is relatively soft on the League, too, characterising it as more gullible (falling prey to the persuasions of extremists) than devious.
Once the Chief Minister’s ‘Nava Kerala’ document is accepted, the party is planning to popularise its theme that the Congress under Oommen Chandy did not have the political will to take Kerala forward. The document details how the development of NH 66, the GAIL pipeline and the transmission grid from Kudankulam were held up because the Congress buckled under pressure and how, after Pinarayi came to power, all these development initiatives and more, were finally realised. “They were not interested in Kerala,” Govindan said.
