With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as its sworn enemy, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] may have settled the question of the nature of its relationship with the Congress. But the view of the Congress from Delhi varies vastly from how the party is viewed from Kerala.
This was all too evident at the inaugural of the 23rd party congress of the CPI(M) when general secretary Sitaram Yechury urged the Congress and other parties, which claim to be secular, to unambiguously choose which side they are on. While Mr. Yechury wants the broadest possible secular front aligned around a common minimum programme (CMP) to take on the BJP, Chief Minister and Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan categorically described the BJP and the Congress as birds of the same feather, as they both “followed the same set of policies.”
Mr. Vijayan flayed the Congress along with the BJP and other communal forces for violent attacks on CPI(M) cadres in the State.
