Even as CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday billed isolating and defeating the BJP as the “patriotic duty’’ of all Left, secular democratic forces, the party’s draft political organisation report acknowledges failure within its own cadres to “grasp the danger posed by the RSS ideology’’; flagging the Bengal unit’s assessment of the Trinamul Congress being a greater evil as a case in point.

In his inaugural address to the 23rd Party Congress in Kannur, Yechury urged all Left, secular democratic forces to come together in order to isolate and defeat the BJP.

“All political parties that proclaim secularism must rise to the occasion to discharge this patriotic duty,” Yechury said.

“The Congress party along with some other regional parties must set their houses in order and decide on where they stand to safeguard the secular, democratic character of the Indian republic. Prevarications and compromising attitudes can only lead, as experience has shown, to an exodus from such parties towards the communal forces. Hindutva communalism can only be combated by championing uncompromising secularism,’’ he added.

Yechury’s call to political parties opposed to the BJP to bury their differences and work together against the onslaught on the foundational principles of modern India is as much to his own party as it is to the others; particularly in Bengal where the history of violence between the CPM and the Trinamul Congress makes any understanding difficult.

The CPM, which often claims to be the only political organisation in the country which can provide an ideological alternative to rightwing forces, admits to ideological weakness in the draft political organisation report, to be discussed at the party congress.

Dwelling on the Bengal example, the report says: “We saw how the threat of the BJP was not understood by large section of the party in West Bengal when it was becoming a growing force; our main concentration was against the Trinamul Congress. In Tripura too, we could not comprehend how the BJPRSS could rise so swiftly before the 2018 Assembly election.’’

Part of the problem, according to the report, lies in the tendency in the party to think that the BJP government at the centre and the BJPRSS can be fought by taking up the economic policy issues and livelihood issues alone.

“The fact that the Hindutva communal ideology cloaked in jingoistic nationalism has penetrated large sections of the people in various parts of the country is not properly grasped.’’

The document also notes that despite paying the price for underestimating the BJP in Bengal, party cadres in Andhra Pradesh are making the same mistake.

“The Andhra Pradesh state conference report notes that our party activists are more against the ruling YSRCP than the BJP’’ since the saffron party is not strong in the state.

The review of last year’s Bengal Assembly elections reveals how the state committee refused to read the writing on the wall and preferred to subscribe to its own assessment of the BJP and Trinamul being in collusion to “create a bipolarity’’ in the state.

“The consequent growing confrontation between the BJP and the ruling party was underestimated. This resulted in diluting the sharpness of the antiBJP campaign and often equating BJP and Trinamul Congress in practice’’ to a devastating result for the CPM which for the first time since independence does not have a member in the Bengal Assembly.