Post-poll Left-Congress alliance possible, says Sudhakar Reddy

The opposition might have failed in forming a broad secular front at the national level but CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said it would not prevent disparate parties, some even incompatible with each other, from coming together to keep the BJP out. A clear hint that, if need be, the Left will align with the Congress in a loose post-poll arrangement. CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, too, had said Rahul Gandhi's decision to take on the Left in Wayanad would not stand in the way of a post-election alliance.

The CPI general secretary said what was of primary importance was to remove the threat to the very existence of India as a democracy. “We have serious issues with the Congress on secularism and economic policies. They preach secularism but when it comes to fighting communalism, they are seen to be soft. As for economic policies, the BJP itself had said that it was following the policies initiated by the Congress,” Reddy said here on Thursday. “However, there are other things that we are worried about more,” he added.

Reddy said that democratic institutions were being undermined under Narendra Modi. “The CBI, RBI, the Enforcement Directorate, the Income Tax department and all such institutions have become the departments of the BJP. The BJP is trying to control the judiciary, too,” Reddy said.

He said Congress would be part of the non-BJP alternative. “But we are not sure whether the Congress can be accepted as the leader of the alternative. All parties opposed to the BJP will have to arrive at a consensus on the leader,” he said.

The CPI general secretary said it was the short-sightedness of the Congress that had scuppered the chances of a broad secular front at the national level. “Narrow partisan group interests at the local level had prevented the Congress from arriving at an understanding even with non-Left secular parties,” Reddy said. He said the myopic calculations of the Congress had made the anti-BJP alternative “highly complicated”, another way of saying that stitching up a post-poll alliance against the BJP has become highly difficult but still manageable.

As if keen to keep the remaining opposition intact, Reddy refused to brand the Indian Union Muslim League as communal the way the CPM has. The CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had criticised Rahul Gandhi for taking the support of communal elements like the League. Nonetheless, Reddy disagrees. “The Muslim League represents the Muslim community. But we have never said that the Muslim League is communal. When you say a party is communal it means that it spreads hate against other communities and religions,” Reddy said.

The CPI leader also said that the Left would never become irrelevant. “Our role is to function as a dedicated committed opposition. It will only be through the Left that the voice of the poor and the marginalised would be heard. Our relevance would only grow in the coming years,” Reddy said.