Accusing it of 'shirking' from launching an 'uncompromising' struggle against communalism in Gujarat, the Communist Party of India-Marxist on Thursday said the Congress had adopted a 'short-sighted and harmful' approach.
"The Gujarat election results underline the necessity for an uncompromising struggle against the Hindutva variety of communalism. Such a platform has to be built up in the state and forces rallied around it. The Congress party, as the main opposition in Gujarat, has shirked doing so.
"On the contrary, the predominant attitude has been to avoid raising anti-communal issues on the plea that it will help the Bharatiya Janata Party to polarise the people. This is a short-sighted and harmful approach that was reflected in the Congress' election campaign," CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat said in an article in the forthcoming issue of party organ People's Democracy.
He also described as 'misplaced' BJP leader L K Advani's comments that Gujarat poll results were a 'turning point' in national politics, but asked the secular forces not to underestimate the victory of the saffron party in the western state.
"If some of the secular opponents of the BJP were mistaken in underestimating the deep communal impact in Gujarat, the hopes of L K Advani that Gujarat marks a 'turning point' in national politics is also misplaced," Karat said.
Advani should not forget that in 2003, after BJP recorded victories in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh, its leadership decided to go in for early Lok Sabha election, which they lost, he said.
"Just as the Congress is being punished by the people in the states where it rules, the BJP should be apprehensive of what it will have to face in states like Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh that go to polls later in 2008," Karat said, adding that BJP record in these states was one of misrule and corruption."
The Left party leader said the lesson from Gujarat was that 'deep-rooted communalism cannot be fought just by momentary electoral tactics, however well-designed' but by taking up the immediate problems of the people 'affected by the unabashed rightwing economic policies.'
"This in turn requires the mobilisation of the working people through struggles. After all, they are the victims of the right-wing communal politics which serves the regime of big capital," he said, asking Left and democratic forces to continue the struggle giving no quarter to communal politics.
Though Advani kept talking of making Himachal Pradesh and other BJP-ruled states another Gujarat, 'the reality is that BJP has pathetically failed to prove that there is even a semblance that it is a party with a difference," he said.
Referring to the poll results in Himachal Pradesh, which will be declared over the weekend, the CPI-M leader said 'all indications are that the Congress is up against popular discontent due to its state government's record.'
"After the Punjab and Uttarakhand election results, one had expected the Congress leadership to introspect. The pursuit of pro-rich, anti-people economic policies is adversely impacting the people's livelihood, resulting in erosion of popular support," he said, adding that Congress' decline in the past two decades was mainly due to such economic policies and losing its orientation towards the rural and urban poor.
© 2026