NEW DELHI: A day after convention against communalism, CPM said the group of 14 political parties is likely to get enlarged significantly in the future. “It is not a closed list,” CPM weekly People’s Democracy said.

CPM also highlighted the way Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav gave “enthusiastic calls for strengthening unity in the coming days”. The party said that even as the convention was in progress messages came from various parties and groups from across the country that they would like to be associated with such campaigns in the future. The convention, CPM said, reflected the rich diversity and plurality of the Indian social mosaic. “From the former ruling party of Assam, Asom Gana Parishad , to the former chief minister of Jharkhand, the other leaders present, reflected the composite cultural heritage of our country,” CPM said.

The principal Left party also accused BJP of misappropriating Sardar Patel with the objective of “re-writing Indian history in order to straightjacket it into a monolithic record of the glorification of the Hindu nation”. CPM said BJP’s effort is integral to advance the RSS project of the metamorphosis of the modern Indian secular democratic republic into their version of Hindu nation. CPM said, “Sharpening of communal polarisation through fascistic demagogy and the triumph of the RSS project will only signal the death of the ideals enshrined in our Republican Constitution”.

CPM said the fact that the convention — as was speculated did not result in the formation of non-Congress, non-BJP political alternative — made it clear that its primary objective was to strengthen people’s unity against communalism.