Sitaram Yechury feels weakened Congress can hardly be fulcrum for Opposition unity

He hopes that reasonableness will prevail on joint Opposition candidate for Presidential polls

An unwavering opponent of the BJP, Sitaram Yechury has been elected as CPI(M)'s General Secretary for the third consecutive term at the 23rd Party Congress held in Kerala's Kannur earlier this month. One of the prominent Opposition voices in the country, Yechury spoke to DH's Shemin Joy about his party, national politics and the way forward for the Opposition.

Q. Party Congresses in recent years were held amid inner-party struggles. This time one did not witness any controversy. Has unity returned to the CPI(M)?

A. More or less, the unity is there. This has been a Party Congress that has shown much more of a united resolve and the determination to realise that resolve. The main objective in today's condition is to work for the isolation and defeat of the BJP. This is required for improving people's livelihood, for safeguarding the Constitution and the secular democratic character of the Indian Republic. It is required to uphold the democratic rights and civil liberties. We will have to defeat the attacks on our Constitutional order. That is why we say isolate and defeat the BJP. How to do it? We have formulated a four-point strategy. One is that this requires a significant rise in the independent strength of the CPI(M) and its political intervention capacity. Simultaneously, we will have to strengthen the unity of the Left forces and forge a Left Democratic Front. Here, the democratic component includes social movements and not necessarily only political bodies. That Left Democratic Front would be based on an alternative policy programme, which is alternative to the ruling class politics. Fourth component of the strategy is the mobilisation of the broadest possible front of secular forces against Hindutva communalism and its activities. These tasks are not sequential but simultaneous.

Q. You referred to the Left Democratic Front. What is it exactly? Is it an electoral front?

A. This is essentially to strengthen people's struggles and movements in an alternative policy direction. It is not to contend with just criticising or critiquing the existing policies. Often, we are having a negative campaign where we only criticise what is happening. The question is what is the alternative and that normally does not get focussed. That focus is important to actually enlist people's support. We can tell people that we can raise resources this way and it can be spent this way. That kind of a complete policy direction is the main objective. As and when the elections come, as we said that there will be maximisation of pooling of votes, all these Left and democratic parties will come together.

Q. How do you break the barriers and come together to isolate and defeat the BJP when the Opposition's electoral space has shrunk?

A. To me, all this will have to be state-specific. Never has it happened, never will it happen in India that you will have an all-India pre-poll coalition. Everytime, it happens at the state-level and you get the maximum possible unity or adjustment or understanding. The conditions that are existing in the states are finally pooled at all-India level. For example in Tamil Nadu, the arrangement worked very well. In the (recent) Assam arrangement, the difference in vote-share of the Opposition and the BJP was only 0.86 per cent. You have that kind of arrangement in Maharashtra too. Now, work that out properly. Therefore, you work it out at the state-level and that is where the coordination will have to be there.

Q. How can you bring parties with varied interests on a common platform with an alternative programmatic agenda?

A. We will have to get them on board on concrete issues. For example, employment. How do you generate jobs? What are the ways of doing it? Each state will have a separate prescription, depending on their resources. There are certain things that can be done at all-India level. You have MGNREGA now. You can extend it to the urban areas, you can have an Urban Employment Guarantee scheme. Second is the generation of jobs. Private investments by nature will not come unless demand grows. Demand does not grow unless jobs grow in the economy. So it's a tautological circle. Private investment cannot do this. The only way you can break this tautology is public investments. Instead of giving all these concessions to the private capital, you focus on the very resources for generating the public works programmes. Build your much-needed infrastructure and generate the jobs. In a sense, it may sound like a classical Keynesian formula. It is through state intervention that you will have to work on. That is one aspect. So with the leaders of other parties, we will have to discuss concretely.

Second is the basic foundation of the Republic. The four fundamental pillars of your Republic -- secular democracy, economic sovereignty, social justice and federalism. So how each one of these foundational pillars can be strengthened. How are they assaulted today? That all of us know. But what is the answer to that? This requires some amount of concrete study and thought and inputs. That is when these forces can be cemented together on some programme. Not merely a collection of votes to win the elections. Win the election and then do what? Even when you want to win the election you have to tell the people something concrete so that they will vote for you. Whether you like it or not, during the election campaign in Bihar, when the issue of employment came, you saw the way the youth responded to the RJD. But it came a little too late in the campaign. So the youth will also have to be told very concretely that this can be done and this is the way. We cannot just say we will get you jobs. That doesn't work. We will have to tell them how we are going to do that. That is how you make it tangible.

Q. For this to realise, the Left will also have to grow. What is your plan?

A. When we say we will develop our independent strength, the focus will be on developing local struggles. In localities, what are the real issues? Somewhere it will be water, somewhere it will be power, somewhere else it will be transport. Pick up on those local issues, organise them and make some demands realisable. It is perfectly possible. This is the medium -- local struggles -- through which we aim to increase our strength and political intervention capacity. As far as the Left is concerned it will be through common struggles. The Left and Democratic Front or forces are where we discuss people's and social movements. There are a lot of well-meaning organisations, discuss with them on a joint platform and forge them together. Then there is the larger issue of secularism. When democracy was under threat, the broadest mobilisation of democratic forces for restoring democracy came up. Now secularism is under threat and we need the broadest mobilisation of secular forces.

Q. One of the main poles of the Opposition is the Congress, which is facing a crisis. How does a Opposition grouping happen when a key partner is blowing hot and cold on issues?

A. That is up to them where they want to stand. It is an issue that they have to settle themselves with. If it is an internal organisational problem, they have to settle it. If it is a problem of their outlook and thinking, they will have to settle it. A weakened Congress can hardly be a fulcrum to bring everybody together. Naturally, it will have an impact on others too. So, the Congress will have to settle its house in order.

Q. Congress is in direct fight with the BJP in around parliamentary 350 seats. There are around 200 other seats. Here too, Congress and other Opposition parties are fighting each other. What is your advice to the Opposition grouping?

A. Maximise the one-to-one contest. It cannot happen 100 per cent. Congress and the Left cannot be on the same side in Kerala. Trinamool Congress cannot be on the same side with the Left or the Congress in West Bengal. There, we will have to keep the BJP and the Trinamool separated. Then it will be a three-cornered fight. But in places like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Assam, it is possible. Now with the AAP in Punjab, where will it stand? A divided Opposition is helping the BJP. So to try and minimise that division, we will have to work it out. It is not an easy job. That is why I said it can only be state-level understanding or alliances.

Q. The Presidential elections in July will be the immediate test of the Opposition unity. Will there be a consensus Opposition candidate?

A. Last time we had a consensus candidate. The basic qualification required for a Presidential candidate is that he/she should uphold the Constitution. So the discussions will begin as things move forward.

Q. Many in the Opposition feel that the Congress should be more accommodating and should not push for its Presidential candidate. What is your view?

A. I only hope that reasonableness will prevail when the idea is to forge a consensus. At one level, the Congress is the largest contingent of the Opposition to the BJP in terms of electoral college numbers. That is also a fact. But that puts all the more responsibility on the Congress to take everybody together. It is not necessary to pick up some other Opposition party candidates. There are enough well-meaning people in the country who can be a consensus candidate. Last time, Gopal Gandhi was our consensual Vice President candidate. Earlier, Hamid Ansari was also a consensual candidate. They do not belong to any particular party but we can always come to such an understanding. That is perfectly possible.

Q. Now, the discourse is more on hijab, halal, azaan. Why is that the debate is not on more pressing people's issues?

A. Precisely because the Narendra Modi government has not been able to deliver a single promise on people's issues. Forget people, just look at the economy. The economy is in shambles. This year every single international agency has scaled down our future growth expectations. If people’s discomfort is growing, their agonies are growing, unemployment, poverty, hunger, educational deprivation and on top of that inflation ruining their life, which is the best way to mobilise them and deflect attention away from this discontent? By rousing emotional issues like hijab, halal, azaan etc. That is the political rightward shift that is happening. It is happening in many parts of the world. When they are unable to control their support base, you move into this sort of polarising agenda, with racism, xenophobia and in our country, communalism. That is why you find the Prime Minister not talking in the last one year on anything concerning people’s lives. The basic thrust of the agenda is polarisation. You don’t have to talk about bread and butter issues. Rouse emotions, spread hate and thereby consolidate Hindutva communal votebank.

Q. The CPI(M) Political Organisation Report spoke about organising rural workers other than agricultural workers. Why is this task important for the CPI(M)?

A. Earlier, most of the workers in rural India were agricultural labourers. Today that is not the case. There are a large number of petty workers, artisans etc. Industrial workers and agricultural workers have their own unions. Where do the non-agricultural workers who do not fall under any organisational framework go? In urban areas also, there is this issue. The migrant workers do not fall under traditional trade union activities. Whatever little protection was there for migrant workers is not there now after the Labour Codes subsumed a legislation that was meant to cater to them. All those avenues for organising themselves are gone. They need to be organised. We have to think of organising workers in sectors or areas where they are not under the traditional framework of organisations. It can’t be a union in a trade union sense. It can be an association of workers. Something like that sort.

Q. Is the organising of rural workers also part of a larger agenda of maximising the pooling of anti-BJP forces?

A. Organising anybody is going to be anti-BJP. They are organising people on their agenda. We are organising them on our agenda. Naturally, it will be anti-BJP.

Q. One thing that keeps the BJP-RSS on top against the Opposition is its meticulous ground work. What is your view?

A. That is the most important thing. Local workers are the link between the party and the people. Unless that gets stronger, this cannot be very effective. We have our focus on that. We are telling our Opposition colleagues to focus on this.

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