State secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] A. Vijayaraghavan has said the government and the party have faced seemingly endless waves of misinformation and patently anti-left news narratives in the election year.
Speaking to The Hindu on Sunday about campaign challenges, Mr. Vijayaraghavan said the election-era lies spread by the Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had tested the limit of usual political hyperbole.
The libellous insinuations bordered on character assassination. The smear campaign targeted those at the helm of the party and government. The CPI(M) had faced worser trails than this and surmounted the odds.
The BJP had attempted a coup against democracy. It had enlisted Central law enforcement agencies to unleash an insidious cascade of slanders against the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. The BJP wanted to unsettle the administration.
It aspired to cast LDF leaders under a cloud of suspicion till the 2021 Assembly polls. The BJP had taken a page out of the playbook of despots. The Congress and the corporate media played second fiddle to the BJP.
The CPI(M) has strived to the bridge the chasm of deceptions to sent its message of good governance, limitations of Central authority and rights of States to voters. The government was seeking a second term in local bodies on the merit of its accomplishments in health, education, agriculture, infrastructure development and social security.
The Opposition parties had no comparable programme or policy to offer as an alternative to the people. The connective tissue of lies propped up their floundering political narrative. The voters were unconvinced. They saw no incentive in voting for the United Democratic Front (UDF) or National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Both the UDF and NDA had signed a mutual assistance treaty. They had fielded a profusion of independent candidates to draw voters from both camps. “Pokkatukavu village in Palakkad was an illustrative example. No candidate is fighting on the Congress or BJP symbol. The symbiotic relationship is evident,” he said.
The Congress has sought votes from the Sangh Parivar. At the same time, it was in alliance with Islamist outfits. There will be no erosion in LDF votes. The heft of the Jose K. Mani faction of the Kerala Congress (M) in Central Travancore has helped the LDF foray into the traditional UDF strongholds.
