JOIN USAttracting youth is biggest challenge: Yechury
Sitaram Yechury, the new CPM General Secretary, has a tough job at hand at a time his party is not electorally or organisationally healthy and he knows it more than anyone else does. Yechury spoke to Deccan Herald’s Shemin Joy.
Excerpts from the interview:
Modi government is completing one year. Have the “Ache Din” arrived?
No. On the contrary, people are now yearning for “ache din”. The burden on people is continuously growing. You have seen the increase in fuel prices once again when international prices are much lower than what they were when Modi assumed office. Industry is now saying that they have inventories piled up for another two to three years. People’s purchasing power is declining.
There is criticism from within BJP. Arun Shourie has questioned Modi’s achievements.
The person who is mounting criticism had publicly lobbied to be the finance minister, to head the now defunct Planning Commission. He wanted to head Niti Ayog. Now this criticism can be explained as he does not have anything he wanted. However, there is a point in what is being said. The point we are making is very clear: India today does not lack resources or youth power. Instead, what the government is doing is expanding opportunities for foreign and domestic corporates to maximise their profit.
Who is your bigger rival, Modi or Rahul?
The Congress’ economic policies created the discontent, which the BJP utilised to come to power. The BJP is more aggressively pursuing the same policies. In addition, the BJP is also patronising a very rabid communal polarisation. The government led by Modi has welded communalism and neo liberal economic policies into one. Because they are in power, because they have welded both these objectives, they are big danger. But that does not mean we can have any alliance or front with the Congress. We have to face this challenge.
CPM is raising the land issue for quite some time. Do you regret the way you handled Singur/Nandigram issue?
In Singur, there were mistakes that could have been avoided. It was wrong that we bypassed them. But there were objective reasons. We won the 2006 election in Bengal. We won it on the slogan of industrialisation. We presumed people supported that because we got a two-third majority. And therefore, we did not do the homework that was necessary to do. That created a certain resentment, which the opposition used fully.
Electorally, is Bengal your first priority?
Yes, in the sense of a revival in Bengal. Now we are happy with the current municipal election results where we have arrested the decline in our vote share.
What are your worries as CPM General Secretary?
The main worry is that the organisation today is not in a position to reach out to people the way it should. Secondly, the organisation is not attractive to youth the way our ideology should be attractive. After all, Marxism is a modern ideology. We don’t talk about India in the past, mythology and all. We are a party with a modern outlook. Why is that we are not attractive to youth? Obviously, there are some defects. Now that has to be vastly improved. That is my biggest challenge and worry.
Has the AAP taken over CPM space?
They have been more effective in taking up the issues that we have traditionally championed. But the point is that we have seen such waves of new parties forming governments. But none of them sustained. We have been saying that the AAP lacks clarity on economic policies and on fight against communalism. In fact, I think we have been vindicated because the problems within AAP are actually a reflection of this point.