Fresh call for “Left unity”

Kshiti Goswami, the newly elected general secretary of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), believes that his immediate focus should be on strengthening the ties within the Left Front, of which the RSP is a key constituent. Speaking to Frontline , the veteran leader said, “My main priority is to strengthen the cohesion within the Left Front. The cohesion among us is a little loose now. There may be times when the differences of views between us come to the fore, but one thing that all of us, including the Communist Party of India (Marxist), agree on is that Left unity is of primary importance, and with that unity we have to take the Left movement forward. This will also give reassurance to other democratic secular forces in the fight against the BJP.”

The fresh call for “Left unity” was announced at the RSP’s national conference held in Delhi between December 1 and 3. “At our invitation all the main Left organisations had come to the conference—Sitaram Yechury from the CPI(M), D Raja from the CPI, Debabrata Biswas from the Forward Bloc, Dipankar Bhattacharya from the CPI-ML, and Satyawan Singh from the SUCI-C. We gave a call for Left unity and agreed that our main motto is to fight the communal, divisive forces in the country and remove the BJP from power. We have already charted out several all-India programmes, including strikes called by Left trade unions supported by all Left parties,” said Goswami.

The main thrust for the RSP and the Left Front right now, he said, was to “present our point of view to the masses and correct ourselves in those areas where we have gone wrong”. Regarding a possible tie-up with the Congress to take on the BJP, Goswami appeared to be cautious. “When we talk about the coming together of democratic secular forces to defeat the BJP, automatically the Congress comes into the picture. But we also have to take into consideration the fact that our relationship with the Congress varies drastically from State to State. The Congress is not equally accepted in all the States. We have to see where the situation is heading and then take a decision,” he said.

Goswami was one of the most prominent faces of the Left Front government that ruled West Bengal for 34 years, until 2011, and was Minister for Public Works Department (PWD) from 1992 to 2011. However, toward the end of the Left Front rule, he became one of its most vocal critics, particularly of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government’s policy of forcible acquisition of agricultural land for setting up industries.