Break barriers to overcome stagnation: Gurudas Dasgupta to CPI

NEW DELHI: The Left's 'stagnation and decline' has been questioned by senior CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta. He has proposed an alternative to his party's draft political resolution at its recently-concluded party congress in Patna, saying it was not enough for the Left to limit itself to the slogan of Third Front or Left and democratic unity.

"The slogan has to be the broadest unity of the democratic forces, not merely the slogan of Third Front or stereotype Left and democratic unity, committed to fight back capitalist onslaught. This is essential because there is increasingly a possibility of new permutation and combination of political forces much beyond which we can visualise today," Dasgupta said in his 'Amendment - Addition To The Political Resolution,' submitted to the party congress.

The veteran MP, according to a CPI leader, said it was possible to reach out to new sections and broaden the unity if the Left took up the task of "breaking all barriers".

In a candid criticism of the Left, he said "having failed to develop and lead mass struggles in the recent period despite the accentuation of human distress, more significantly leaning on electoral performance, Left has seriously marginalised its political role in national politics".

Describing the economic situation in the country as ominous, attacking Congress and BJP for toeing the same 'neo-liberal policies' and alleging 'erosion in the credibility' of the political system, he said there was a political vacuum in the country.

"The Left is also on the back-foot suffering electoral reverses. Not only Left has failed to expand, it is, in fact, stagnating, rather on a decline. If the political panorama is scrutinised, the mood of the people is becoming more and more restive, increasingly impatient with the agonising ordeal of distress of life. People are becoming intolerant of poverty, while the fruit of economic growth rarely reaches the multitude of the people," he said.

The AITUC leader expressed the view that only the slogan of broadest democratic unity can make the party advance and turn itself into a vibrant instrument of militant mass action. According to him, expansion of mass action will throw up new opportunities of realignment of social forces.