Thiruvananthapuram, Jan 2 (BPNS)

CPI national secretariat member and Member of Parliament, Benoy Viswam has said that the legacy of the Indian National Congress cannot be wiped out and that the existence of Congress was very important in the democratic process of India.

Viswam was speaking at a seminar here on Sunday.

The CPI leader said that while Sangh Parivar was tightening its grip on all institutions of the country, the left will not be able to fill the vacuum of the Congress and that the Congress must survive in the country for the democracy to continue in the nation. He said that the left parties do not have the strength to step into the vacuum of Congress and said that the legacy of leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru must continue in the country.

He lashed out against the BJP and RSS for trying to convert India into a monolithic entity by forgetting its unity in diversity principle that was the basis of India as a nation.

Benoy Viswam said that the people of the country are concerned at the RSS and BJP creating a separate version of India and trying to exclude the minorities and the backward classes and Dalits from the idea of India.

The CPI leader who was a former Forest Minister of Kerala also said that the Congress party must make a strong come back. He however said that this was his opinion and that the political and ideological differences of the CPI with the Congress continue.