Former CPM general-secretary Prakash Karat on Tuesday drew parallels between the far-right regimes of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and Narendra Modi in India and pledged to strengthen the fight against Hindutva forces at home to keep the rise of neo-fascism at bay.

The CPM politburo member was addressing a party event here to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the publication of the Communist Manifesto and to observe the foundation of the communist party in India. He endorsed demands to stop the Israel offensive on Gaza and for the independence of Palestine — in line with India’s stated position of supporting talks for two sovereign states of Palestine and Israel.

“Comrades, given the dominant Hindutva narrative in our country today, we will be attacked… ‘You’re supporting terrorists’. Because this (Modi) government brands anybody who opposes them as terrorists anyway,” said Karat.

“In Kashmir, everybody is a terrorist. Journalists who criticise the government, they are terrorists. Opposition parties or leaders who oppose them are terrorists. So, they will brand us as supporters of terrorism. But that should not deter us,” he added.

Modi had expressed support for Israel in the aftermath of incursions into the country by Hamas.

Karat said the fight against the Modi government was one against its policies and that foreign policy was only a reflection or extension of the regime’s domestic policies.

“Their domestic policy is to target the minorities, to convert them into second-class citizens, to establish a Hindu Rashtra, just like Israel is trying to establish a Jewish state,” he said.

“So our fight (is) against the Modi government today, its attack on democracy, its attack on secularism, its attack on federalism, its attack on the Constitution, and its attack on the democratic rights in the Opposition as a whole,” added the 75-year-old. “It is going the way where it will end up as neo-fascism…. That is what is happening in Israel, as I said.”

“It is ironic that before this Hamas attack, the Netanyahu government was facing huge protests from the people of Israel. Because Netanyahu was trying to pass laws to control the judiciary, to curb the judiciary… it was a big movement,” he said.

“What is our government doing here? They want to not only control the judiciary, but also the media… they want to control the Parliament, they want to control everything,” he added, staying true to his leitmotif of how Netanyahu and Modi are two sides of the same proverbial coin. “So, already we have a Hindutva authoritarian regime, and if they are allowed to go on unchecked, if they are allowed to go unresisted, it will end up in a form of neo-fascism.”

He accused the US establishment and the Joe Biden administration of backing pro-Hindutva forces in India.