Sitaram Yechury believes that a broad secular front to combat the BJP is the need of the hour
The clamour for an anti-BJP front has been heard loud and clear over the past few months from different parts of the country. With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) growing in strength, post every election, it has become imperative for the other non-BJP parties that despise the saffron outfit and its policies to forge together a strong front against it.
We have already seen West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee take the lead to bring together like-minded parties to put together a front against the party that is in power at the Centre. Though the move is still on, only a few prominent regional parties have come up in support. The Congress party is still undecided, and that makes the scene confusing.
Broad secular front: Will that be a reality?
With such a scenario as the backdrop, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s General Secretary Sitaram Yechury has given a call for a “broad secular front” terming it as the need of the hour. Addressing party leaders and the cadre who had assembled in Kerala’s Kannur for the 23rd party congress recently, Yechury went on to state that it has become imperative that all the secular and democratic forces need to come together to defeat the BJP.
The CPI(M) of course considers the BJP its prime foe. Taking the feeling a step further, Yechury said the BJP is number one enemy of the party and the country. The BJP needs to be isolated and defeated. The saffron outfit is undermining all the constitutional bodies and selling off public sector undertakings (PSUs). According to Yechury, the need of the hour is that all secular forces should come together to dump the party driven by Hindutva ideology.
The CPI(M) believes that the communal agenda of Hindutva unleashed by the Sangh Parivar and its outfits can be combated only by championing uncompromising secularism. And, in that context, he called upon all political parties hold secularism close to their chests need to rise to the occasion and be part of a broad secular front, which according to him, is the need of the hour.
Congress and the need for a rethink
It is of course here that the role of the grand old party could come into play. The Congress party, which indeed has a widespread presence across India, has been waiting with no concrete decision being taken by the party top brass. The election defeats have become a regular phenomenon for the party, and yet a solid plan as to how to combat the ever growing popularity of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
As Yechury says, the Congress party will have to do enough rethinking on its secular position and credentials on a number of issues and must set its house in order. The non-BJP entities would hope that the Congress party would do exactly that.
