THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPM general secretary Prakash Karat on Tuesday said that Christianity and Communism had more in common than Christianity and capitalism.Inaugurating the delegates’ session of the CPM state conference here at the Harkishan Singh Surjith Nagar (AKG Hall), Karat said the CPM did not believe in combating any religion.In the run-up to the state conference, there was a debate on how the CPM sees Christianity.The controversy was motivated and unwarranted, he said.“I draw the attention of the Catholic Church leaders here.Fidel Castro in 1971 had told the Church that Communism and Christianity had 10,000 times more in common than Christianity and capitalism,” Karat said.“There is no party as consistent as the CPM in fighting fundamentalism and terror,” he added.He said there were several efforts to tarnish the party.Being the biggest party leading the left democratic alternative in the country, it was simply neglecting the ‘pinpricks’, he said without referring to the controversy over CPI leader C K Chandrappan’s statement about the CPM engaging an “event management group”.Coming down heavily on the Congress-led UDF Government, he said the UDF itself was steeped in corruption and should not think it could malign the LDF.The UDF had framed Pinarayi Vijayan in the SNCLavalin case and V S Achuthanandan in a land transfer case, he said and added that “the party with one voice will fight the efforts to tarnish our party”.The Congress has a notorious track record of using investigation agencies against political opponents.But their efforts at tarnishing the image of the party leaders would not succeed, he said.“If you believe that you can use the CBI against the CPM, you are living in a fantasy,” Karat said.He claimed that under the LDF rule led by Achuthanandan, it could formulate many pro-poor policies.But in the Assembly elections, the party lost power.It was just a minor setback as it was not a negative mandate for its policies.Politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan presided over the inaugural function which was attended by other senior party members K Varadarajan, S Ramachandran Pillai, Sitaram Yechuri and Brinda Karat.M Vijayakumar welcomed the delegates.
Comments
0 comment