Inaugurating the five-day conference in Hyderabad, CPI general secretary A B Bardhan said: "There are also secular democratic parties and groups, who are also looking for an alternative. We have to interact with them and try to draw them into common struggles for forging such a Third alternative based on a Left and democratic programme."
Referring to the presence of the top leaders of the three other Left parties at the inaugural session, Bardhan admitted: 'We may sometimes have little differences. But we are together on most issues affecting our country and our people. We have to further strengthen and consolidate this Left unity, for that is the only way we can advance to build the Third alternative-the Left and democratic alternative in India."
Echoing similar feelings, Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat said: "It should be our endeavour to gather other democratic and secular forces, so that we can find a way immediately out of the ruling class consensus, which is leading the country on a highly iniquitous and socially unjust path. Left initiative is required for creating and presenting a Third alternative before the people."
"What we have achieved in these last three years is in great part due to the unity in thought and action of the Left parties. Coordination and the united approach of the CPI-M and the CPI are crucial in this respect.
"As for the Left parties, it is not abnormal to have differences on certain issues on occasions. But nothing should be done that would weaken Left unity. That is what the imperialist circles and the ruling classes want. It is on the bedrock of left unity that our future advance will take place," Karat said, assuring that on its part, the CPI-M
would sincerely work to strengthen Left unity.
Stating that Indian politics is now on the crossroads, throwing a challenge to the Left parties to end capitalist polarization in the country, All India Forward Bloc general secretary Debabrata Biswas asserted: "This cannot be achieved unless we can forge wider Left unity to form the People's Alternative. Neither the Congress Party, nor the BJP, both being the two sides of the same coin representing the capitalist class interest aided by the world imperialist powers, could offer any solace to the millions of hungry millions of hungry poor people of the country."
Contending that socialism can only be the alternative to this capitalist domination, Biswas said: "Ours is the fight against capitalism and imperialist globalization. It is high time to forge a wider unity of all Left democratic secular and progressive forces of the country to end the pro-capitalist and pro-US policy of the UPA government, as well as the communal agenda of the BJP."
Revolutionary Socialist Party general secretary, T J Chandrachoodan, too, underscored the need for Left unity.
"We have been talking about a Third alternative for quite sometime now. RSP has been trying to focus also on the need for greater unity within the Left and its emergence as the fulcrum of the Left and secular alternative that should be formed in the country. We see Left unity as the precondition for rallying other secular and democratic forces. The CPI-M and CPI have stressed on the need for absolute unity within the left in the light of the challenges before the secular and democratic sections in general and the Left in particular in the country."
Referring to various Naxalite (Marxist-Leninist) groups, the RSP leader hoped that 'the Left would be able to win over the misguided groups and individuals, who have moved away from the left mainstream so that the Left could emerge as an unassailable force in
national politics'.
