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Basu calls for alternative at Centre: PTI

Mounting a scathing attack on the Centre's policies and programmes, Basu, in his presidential address, said, "What is immediately necessary is a third Left democratic alternative to the NDA government at the Centre."

The West Bengal leader called for concerted efforts to mobilise all sections of masses to give shape to such an alternative and hoped that the updating of the party programme would accentuate that process.

Referring to a demand by political adversaries for dismissal of his government invoking Article 356, Basu said he was certain that the "people of West Bengal will give a fitting rebuff to forces of instigation."

As a many as 401 delegates from across the country, including politburo and central committee members, are attending the four-day session convened to incorporate necessary changes in the 1964 party programme including the question of the CPI-M's possible participation at the Centre in a like-minded set-up.

Inaugurating the meet, CPI-M general secretary H K Surjeet said though the party firmly believed that the alternative to imperialism was only socialism there was need to have self-critical analysis of what went wrong and how to rectify erroneous practices in the light of the setback to socialism after the fall of the Soviet Union.

Charging that the BJP was still governed by the RSS ideology of 'Hindutva', Basu said the constitutional reforms embarked on by the government was part of the efforts to fulfil the goal of the RSS.

"Today we have at the Centre a party committed to the ideology of Hindutva. But Hindu gurus have never argued that you have to attack others to safeguard Hinduism," he said.

He said though there were parties in the NDA that did not embrace the ideology of Hindutva they were bound by the opportunistic alliance for the sake of power.

Criticising the path of development pursued by the Congress and BJP governments, Basu said though much progress had been made in industrialisation and development of science technology in 50 years, most people were still kept out of the sphere of progress.

"Successive governments have failed to make a dent in the situation by following the bourgeoisie, landlord policies," he said.

He claimed that his party had correctly analysed when it adopted its programme 36 years ago that without agrarian revolution there could not be a democratic transition.

Welcoming the delegates, Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar noted that " communal alliance" at the Centre threatened to dislodge Left Front Governments in West Bengal and Tripura and it was unfortunate that the Congress-I with narrow political motives was colluding with the communal alliance.

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