NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist, CPI-M) began a six-day national conclave in the southern city of Visakhapatnam on Tuesday to elect a new party chief and to draw a strategy to counter right-wing Hindu upsurge led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The basic issue before the CPI (M) and I think, therefore, before the Left and the progressive movement in the country is how to strengthen ourselves,” the party’s politburo member Sitaram Yechury said in an interview published on Tuesday.

“This is important not only for the health of our party or for the united Left, which we are trying to strengthen, but there is a definite need for an effective Left intervention in the entire agenda that is unfolding under Prime Minister Modi.”

Mr Yechury, a former student leader, is a key candidate to lead the troubled party. The outgoing general secretary Prakash Karat has completed the limit of three consecutive terms. Kerala communist stalwart S. Ramachandran Pillai is also said to be a serious contender for the leadership role.

“In the name of development etc, the economic policies that are being followed and all his foreign visits — all the agreements — are indicative of one fact: That is India would be rendered into a country where its resources — both material and physical which is our cheap labour force — and the markets will be available in a much bigger way for the profit maximisation quest of international capital,” Mr Yechury said.

The challenges are not only On the economic front. “We have very big challenges on the political and social fronts. The entire state patronised pursuit of the Hindutva agenda, the campaigns that we have seen — ‘ghar wapsi’, ‘love jihad’ etc, what happened in the Science Congress and the efforts to rewrite the textbooks and Indian history.”

The party, which was routed from its bastion in West Bengal and is struggling to come back to power in Kerala, would have to pull itself up for the challenges.

Mr. Yechury referred to the intellectual attacks coming up “where theology is replacing philosophy and mythology is replacing history. Instead of advancing in this emerging knowledge society in the world and giving it leadership, I am afraid this is only going to retard India’s progress.”

Mr. Yechury was asked in the interview with The Hindu to explain why the newly launched Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had succeeded in Delhi where the Left has continued to remain on the margins.

“That is the main question,” he said. “There are two areas that we will examine in the Party Congress: One is the agenda that AAP has taken up are all the issues that the Left traditionally has been raising but people found that AAP was in a better position.

The point is: our organisational weakness was one factor. And second the credibility among the people in terms of actually fighting for these issues. Our dual agenda for the future is to strengthen organisationally, and strengthen popular intervention in terms of people’s struggles.”

The Chinese Communist Party said in its traditional message of greetings that the CPI(M) “has been an important force in India which has adhered to friendly policy towards China, and we highly appreciate the significant role you have played in promoting China-India relations and friendship between our two peoples.”

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2015

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