Prakash Karat Accuses Congress of Compromising With Communalism, Cites Congress-led Karnataka's Communal Riot Data

Kochi: Senior CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat accused the Congress of making peace with communal forces wherever it holds power, despite projecting itself as a secular party. Speaking at the 'Meet the Leader program' at the Ernakulam Press Club, Karat said not a single communal riot had occurred in Kerala over the past ten years, while Congress-governed Karnataka had witnessed 70 communal incidents within just two years — figures, he noted, presented by the state's own Home Minister in the legislature.

Karat said twelve years of Modi rule had led to communal polarisation across the country, with attacks on religious minorities becoming a routine occurrence in many states. Kerala's record of maintaining communal harmony over a decade was, he argued, no small achievement, and was attributable to the LDF's uncompromising stand against communalism. He described the LDF as the only reliable guarantee on this front, and noted that it was sustained protests — including from Kerala — that had forced the BJP to temporarily retreat from the proposed FCRA amendments. He also pointed out that it was the Congress, not the LDF, that had openly aligned with communal parties including Jamaat-e-Islami from the local body elections onwards.

He argued that the LDF government must be returned to power to effectively resist the central government's hostile interventions and to steer Kerala through the worsening economic fallout of the West Asian conflict. He warned that inflation and rising prices would inflict serious damage on the economy in the months ahead, well beyond the current LPG shortage, and that the ripple effects of the war would persist long after the hostilities ceased.

He cited the LDF's track record during Covid-19 and other crises — strengthening the public distribution system and making targeted interventions to protect ordinary people from hardship — as evidence of the front's capacity to handle such challenges. Karat added that the hostility and neglect from the central government that the current LDF administration had faced would continue to confront any future LDF government as well, but that the front had a proven history of resisting such pressure effectively.