Addressing a joint convention of Left parties in Patna on September 15, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat lashed out at BJP for anointing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate and alleged that the party wants to "polarise the country on communal lines" in a bid to win the 2014 elections.
He said," The BJP may try to play out communal riots and rake up issues like the Ram Temple construction in Ayodhya to woo the electorate in the run up to the parliamentary elections and seek to ride on communal polarisation for wresting power at the Centre." He also said that the RSS chose the Gujrat Chief Minister as the BJP's face for the next general elections apparently to maximise electoral gains from his 'divisive personality'.
Prakash sought to puncture Modi's 'India First' slogan and said that the latter was trying to fool the people of the country by creating a false hope about better days ahead, but what he has done actually so far was to "acquire land at cheap rates from the farmers and land owners and give it to the capitalists to make a kill of the assets later". He alleged that: "It was the same capital forces who have been rooting for Modi to be made the next Prime Minister of the country so that their financial interests remained secure".
Prakash Karat hit out at the Congress and BJP for pursuing identical economic policies based on privatisation and so-called 'economic reforms' and pointed to the passage of the Pension Bill by the Parliament during the monsoon session due to collusion between the two premier political parties. CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta also spoke on the occasion and warned about the communal agenda of the BJP.
September 16, 2014