Alliance with Congress: Divided CPI(M) gets prod from Irfan Habib

The debate within the CPI (M) on the issue of alliance with Congress is getting sharper, with eminent historian and a key member of the CPI (M) intelligentsia, Irfan Habib, writing to party leadership and supporting an alliance between the Congress and Left to “counter” the rise of the BJP.

The debate within the CPI (M) on the issue of alliance with Congress is getting sharper, with eminent historian and a key member of the CPI (M) intelligentsia, Irfan Habib, writing to party leadership, supporting an alliance between the Congress and Left to “counter” the rise of the BJP.

Irfan Habib, an eminent historian, has been associated with the Left for over six decades now (YouTube screengrab)

“When the challenge is isolating the BJP, the party should work with the Congress wherever it is needed,” Habib told HT over the phone, explaining why he wrote a letter to the leadership.

He added that the party needs to go beyond its line of ‘bring all Left parties, sympathizers and supporters together’ in fighting the BJP.

Habib has been associated with the Left for over six decades now. His letter comes at a time when the party is going through a churning over the issue of forming an alliance with the Congress in West Bengal during the last state assembly elections.

The leadership in the West Bengal unit of the party wants to go ahead with the alliance, much to the chagrin of most of its central leadership. However, the party unit in Kerala – a state where Congress remains its main opposition of the Left -- is wary of taking any step that may hamper the party’s interests.

Many key figures of the Left intelligentsia have also been calling for the CPI(M) to re-restructure itself.