Alternative policies needed to foil BJP, TMC efforts to turn Bengal polls bipolar event: Yechury

Accusing the BJP and the TMC of trying to turn the upcoming West Bengal polls into a bipolar event between them, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Sunday that alternate policies should be adopted by those opposed to the two political forces in the state in order to defeat them in the hustings.

The CPI(M) and the Congress, which have agreed to an alliance, are in the process of a seat sharing arrangement for the West Bengal assembly elections due in April-May. "It will be the fullest effort of both the BJP and the TMC to turn the West Bengal elections into a bipolar event," Yechurry said at a programme here to mark the 54th anniversary of Ganashakti, CPI(M)'s mouthpiece in West Bengal.

"Alternate policies are required if they are to be defeated politically," Yechury said.

He claimed that the main issues of people's sufferings during the lockdown, joblessness and economic distress are being deliberately shrouded by the Trinamool Congress and the saffron party to keep other parties at bay. He said that the TMC in West Bengal is facing anti-incumbency and the displeasure of the people and an atmosphere of violence and hatred has been created in the state.

Accusing both the saffron party and the Mamata Banerjee- led ruling party in the state of not providing succour to the people during difficult economic situation precipitated by the COVID pandemic, Yechury alleged just as the BJP at the Centre has brought farm laws against the peasants' interests, the TMC government is also not giving the declared minimum support price for paddy to the farmers. He said that it is the Left parties which are agitating against the new farm laws and amended labour laws in the country.

Yechury said that alternative policies are the need of the hour to defeat both the BJP and the TMC in the state, uniting the youth to stand up against these forces. Yechury alleged that the goal of the BJP and the RSS is to destroy the constitution of the country and to create a fascist, fundamentalist and Hindu nation. He claimed that the new symbols of this goal are Ram Temple in Ayodhya and the new Parliament building, signifying a new India of their making.

Yechury said that in order to maintain a democratic and secular system, it is imperative to keep the BJP away from the power and defeat it in the elections. Holding that the people of the country are going through tremendous economic hardships, he said buying power of the people must be increased for the economic development of the country and to achieve this, the government must invest in infrastructure development, which will create jobs and thus provide money in the hands of the people.

He claimed that no steps are being taken by the central government to turn the economy around, "but it is allowing loot and profiteering and is selling off PSUs." Speaking at the function, Left Front chairman Biman Bose alleged that the TMC government in the state is trying to create division on the basis of language. Claiming that an alarming theory being evolved is that those coming to Bengal are outsiders, he asked whether people from Bengal be considered as outsiders in other states. He said that such attempts to create a division on the basis of language have to be opposed by all. 

(Image Credits: PTI)