The Hindu : National : Gujarat needs third force: AIFB, CPI(M-L)

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Tuesday, Dec 25, 2007
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Gujarat needs third force: AIFB, CPI(M-L)

Special Correspondent

“Only progressive alternative can challenge communal forces”

Congress no more an alternative to BJP: Forward Bloc
It was silent on Gujarat riots: CPI(M-L)

NEW DELHI: The All-India Forward Bloc and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) on Monday said Gujarat needed a powerful Left movement and a credible third force that would challenge the communal forces head on and mobilise the poor and the marginalised on the issues of livelihood and survival.

In a statement, AIFB general secretary Debabrata Biswas said a “progressive secular political alternative” under the leadership of the Left parties would be the real alternative to the Bharatiya Janata Party. He said Left leaders should come forward to float such a united platform and vowed to make all-out efforts towards forming the same.

“The Gujarat election results indicate that the Congress is no more an alternative to the BJP. The Congress miserably failed to utilise the conditions prevailing in Gujarat such as high percentage of polling, unprecedented rebel issue in the BJP and the under-development in rural Gujarat. It failed to counter the BJP-sponsored communal politics and project an alternative programme to the Modi government,” Mr. Biswas said.

CPI (M-L) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya said the “almost total capitulation by the UPA government at the Centre as well as the Congress in Gujarat on the issue of state-sponsored communal violence, accompanied by the failure to offer any meaningful alternative to the Adivasis, Muslims and the rural and urban poor dispossessed by Narendra Modi’s brand of neoliberal ‘development’ were in a large measure responsible for the BJP’s victory.”

Mr. Bhattacharya said throughout Mr. Modi’s tenure, the Congress had maintained silence on the 2002 Gujarat riots and the UPA government had failed to deliver on its promise of ensuring justice for the victims of communal violence.

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