Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 3 Veteran Congress leader Cherian Philip on Wednesday lashed out at senior CPI(M) leaders, accusing them of being “blind admirers of China” even as Beijing continues to challenge India’s sovereignty.
Philip targeted CPI(M) General Secretary M.A. Baby for praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent outreach to China.
He said that instead of applauding PM Modi’s approach, Baby should be demanding that Beijing return Aksai Chin, the territory China seized from India during the 1962 war.
Philip also urged Baby to correct what he described as the “erroneous stand” of CPI(M) patriarch E.M.S. Namboodiripad, who had once remarked that parts of Ladakh belonged to both India and China.
While Baby has frequently issued sharp warnings against American leaders such as President Donald Trump, Philip argued that he has failed to confront Chinese President Xi Jinping with equal force.
According to Philip, Baby should be pressing Beijing to abandon its consistent support for Pakistan in disputes with India.
The Congress leader further alleged that the CPI(M) was attempting to draw India closer to the Chinese camp at a time when global powers like the US and China are striving to consolidate rival economic blocs.
He accused the party of clinging to its old tradition of aligning with China, remarking that “the CPI(M) still opens umbrellas in India whenever it rains in their ancestral home, China.”
Contrasting the Communists with the Congress party, Philip noted that while the latter has historically opposed America’s unipolar dominance, the CPI(M) had served the interests of countries in the communist bloc, including China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, and Laos.
Many of these nations, he pointed out, have since abandoned communism in favour of authoritarian capitalism.
Philip concluded that by invoking PM Modi’s China policy, the CPI(M) was preparing the ground for potential political understandings with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in states like Kerala and West Bengal.
Incidentally, Philip was once the closest aide of senior Congress veteran A.K. Antony, but parted ways with the Congress party in 2001 and became a fellow traveller of the CPI(M).
Even though he was given an Assembly seat to contest by the CPI(M) on two occasions, he lost. But in 2021, Philip returned to Congress and has since been rooted to the party.
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