 The CPIM has just released its election manifesto today and it also has a legacy of and continuing legacy enduring legacy of participating and being and leading governments in many of the states in India So based on this, what do you see as the alternative the CPIM and the broader left actually places in front of the people? Well, you know that is a very difficult thing. See As the CPIM as a communist we believe in revolution we believe in socialism and this is a crudely grossly capital society which is not even been able to get rid of all the old feudal baggage and its coexistence strengthened and so you're coming at it with a you know with a with a State which is very strong and very very powerful with all the latest technology and everything so and The constitution also in the federal structure the states have limited rights But we know that we cannot avoid the parliamentary path It is very important for us as communists to participate in these elections and to use the electoral platform Even though we know it is so loaded against us because of huge corporate money coming in Which was there, but it was never to that extent as it is today Imagine now in the Supreme Court even the Supreme Court is taken note of the CPMS petition now They're getting foreign funds also. So Indian political parties are getting foreign funds and it's legal So anyway, so within that framework What can we do and what have we done? So the first thing I want to say is We understand that there are limitations You know winning government in a provincial state in a in a province, you know in a state We call it a state a state assembly a provincial assembly and Winning power at the center there to entirely different things Now in the provincial assembly where we have formed governments three or four things which we have taken very seriously one is trying to break Land monopolies I Think that was critical in that period of the 60s and 70s when we were in government in West Bengal And it was a Kisan movement the peasant movement which was in the forefront of bringing the red flag into the center of Bengal and national politics and the government responded in the way a Communist government must do and I think I mean for me I was a student then it was one of the things which inspired me in the 60s to come into the party and to join the movement It was this commitment to break that land monopoly and to go ahead with Radical land reform facing repression Facing police firing, but the party strongly supporting it so our government was born in the crux of that struggle for land and food So we continued with that policy and then we expanded it with trying to change the nature of political representation and to Bring the voices of the exploited into the political arena directly through elections I mean I think that was a an inspirational step because I think it made a huge because you can have land reforms But if your political representatives are all representatives the ruling classes, you're bound to be pushed back. So this Land reform combined with political representation was very very critical We call it the panchayat system, which is local governance. So that had a tremendous impact Thirdly in other states For example in a state like Kerala We have because it's a different, you know, each state in India has its own history its own tradition and its own Geographical location the different type of industries and livelihoods for people and in Kerala now with our government in Kerala taking Forward the experience there. We have I think it's wonderful. We have for education and health That is our priority and we have set up missions and you won't believe it I think in the whole world Where you have government schools shutting down and people shifting forced to shift their children to private schools The only state in the whole of India and I'm shown the whole of Asia perhaps apart from China Would be Kerala where people are taking their children out to private schools and bringing them into public schools and government schools Because the government is upgrading the schools budgetary allocations and trying to ensure that you have equality at the school system level How can you even talk about merit? Without ensuring a system which will bring out the potential in every single child And then you see now everybody talks about this basic income business Basel social include on the Congress parties now they are doing this But what about basic universal services? You see they took it from Brazil and the Brazil experience said you know if you give a certain income guarantee you do it But you have to look at the other social parameters You have to see you're getting free health getting free education getting subsidized food if you can't get jobs Yes, this income a basic income health, but here You want to remove basic universal services you want to privatize all those services And say hey look I'm giving you this much money is a basic income not that is not something that of course anything which helps the poor That's good but you can't help the poor with one hand and then just slam them and Smash them because every other need of theirs is going to be handed over to the private side You can't do that, but you know that's what's happening So this is so the alternatives that we are looking at and where we can provide them within limited resources Is within this like public education public health with all the resources we have and I tell you it's made a huge difference I mean tripura small state in the northeast tribal population of 30% 32% the only state in India which is Defended the rights of the adivas is the indigenous people Ensure that not an inch of their land was taken away and in fact was given land rights Is it's tripura and you know that was where you had the separatist militancy you could have used draconian laws It is a one state in India in which we withdrew the armed forces special powers act Which is one of the most draconian laws and we the first state in India. We said no We don't want it because we're in political dialogue So you know these are different things and I think it's also important about ideology because You know when Marx says that ideology becomes a material force Of course, it was in a different context in different situation, but I can tell you ideology it is so important because Your commitment is reflected in a much wider conceptualization of what India should be and you must have an ideology of commitment to people's rights because you know parliamentary politics is very very tough and Unless it is properly combined with struggles of the people and Movements of the people and reflecting the voices of the people you can't really build an alternative and in a very modest way I think the CPI am in these years of our existence since 1964 we have tried I think Mainly successfully to combine these two aspects and you mentioned the difficulties of parliamentary politics and the BJP is now The its electoral machine is huge the amount of money. It's bringing in is Unprecedented so based on your own travels in the country, especially over the past couple of months What is the feel you've got of the resistance that's building up for it. It's wonderful I mean if you can work at 45 degrees and just not me talking about our card. I'm talking about Without anything with just a glass of you know, maybe a bottle of water slob on their shoulder and a cloth bag You have that commitment you have that energy you have that vision and we don't have money and that's Of course, it's a huge disadvantage in handicapped very often We can't even feed our card out left home early in the morning and coming and working going around with the candidate or doing Whatever booth wise work they have to do so even the minimum sometimes we're not able to give them But every day and I say this with with such humility and with such respect that you learn something every day Because every day you come across somebody who's got some really big problem, but there she is You know, she's got the red flag in her hand. She's got the voters list in her hand She's going door-to-door And you ask her and you know, so Doesn't matter comrade, you know, we have to win this battle and you are against huge machine you are against the state and There is a sort of a consensus Among the ruling classes and their representatives that we do not want a presence of the left in Parliament They're far too much of a barrier for us and It has been proved that when the left has been strong in Parliament people's rights have a better chance of being defended and divisive issues have a better chance of being buried and People's issues have a better chance of being foregrounded Which has not been there in the last five years because we did have a smaller presence But in spite of that I think our commerce and Parliament did a wonderful job they were really the The voice of the people and Especially if you look at the way minorities and Dalits The scheduled cast and the Muslim minority in particular the Christian minority also I mean they have been more than 3,000 incidents recorded of Violence we have had lynchings of innocent Muslims in the name of cows slaughter, you know because they were accused of slaughtering a cow manufactured most of the time but the killing of a cow is considered more of a criminal act then the killing of a human being and There are people in this country who want the death sentence for that So this is the kind of thing we are facing in our elections and recently this fake nationalism and nationalistic rhetoric which is really the a Desperate government and a desperate Prime Minister who is not accountable for the many Unfulfilled promises is now resorting to that sort of a thing my country You know America first has Trump and you have a similar echo over here of course in different language But the same kind of chess thumping and we know who's America's first and we know who's India's first It's India's corporate. So we know that we know the similarity is all over the world in which right wing forces Seek to take over the entire political Scenario either this right wing or that right wing and they want to divide it all between them Tweedledean tweedledum, but of course a very toxic tweedledean tweedledum And we have the same in India in a much worse way because this is a party which is not like an ordinary party in that sense so elections is way tough and Money is a very big issue of course and also the misuse of state power against us Now for example in a state like Bengal we have false cases against around 100,000 of our activists we have around 20 to 25,000 activists Who cannot go back to their own areas they will be killed and yet they are working there We have a situation in Shri Puravara candidates car was Stopped and he was attacked three times in one day by the BJP hooligans in Bengal It is the state government that a party called the Trinimal Congress Which has pretensions of fighting the BJP but follows exactly the same policies in the state of Bengal anti-communist and strongly anti-democratic more than anti-communist I would say wider anti-democrat no dissent and So you are facing violence also in many parts in Kerala The RSS has been mobilizing on the issue of religion and trying to after the Supreme Court judgment which lifted the prohibition of women's entry into a temple they Mobilized on the basis of tradition and said you know this is against our traditions. This is Communists are attacking our religion. You know the usual Stuff of the right wing so it is tough But I think that the resistance which is there and I think in spite of this the fact that the red flag is there We are fighting so far. We have announced candidates for 71 seats and We're putting up a jolly good fight and I am very confident that we will have a much better presence in Parliament Thank you so much. That's all we have time for today. Keep watching people's dispatch