KOLKATA: The CPI(M) celebrated Independence Day on a grand scale, hoisting the tricolour at all its party offices across West Bengal on Sunday.
Left Front chairman Biman Bose hoisted the national flag at the party's state headquarters in Alimuddin Street in Kolkata as the national anthem was played in the background.
Politburo member Md Salim and central committee member Sujan Chakraborty were present along with other members of the party.
As Bose hoisted the flag, it got entangled and unfurled top-down, but soon it was rectified.
"This time the Central Committee asked all the party offices to hoist the tricolour as part of our decision to observe the 15th August in a grand manner on the 75th anniversary of Independence," Chakraborty told PTI.
In the past, the party used to mainly organise programmes like human chains to foster national integration on this day, while different wings of the CPI(M) used to hoist the national flag on their own, he said.
In a resolution passed in the first week of August, the Central Committee decided that the party will observe the 75th anniversary, emphasising the role of the Communists in the freedom movement and its contribution in the building of modern India.
"On the 75th year of Independence, the country faces bigger dangers -- the threat from Hindutva forces, the threat of communalism," Chakraborty said, explaining the decision to celebrate the day on a grand scale.
"We will not confine our activities by organising human chains only. We will project the significance of the day throughout the year in a sustained manner," he added.
The national flag was also hoisted at CPIM offices across the state by local leaders.
The party also described Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech as being full of "rhetoric, empty slogans and disinformation" and lacking in any reassurance for the people.
Outlining the roadmap for a new and assertive India, Modi on Sunday announced a slew of development programmes, including a landmark Rs 100 lakh crore 'Gatishakti' initiative to boost infrastructure and employment opportunities.
In his eighth consecutive address from the ramparts of Red Fort on the 75th Independence Day, Modi called for making the next 25 years glorious for India with "new thresholds, aspirations and dreams" in the run up to the centenary of its independence from British colonial rule.
"Rhetoric, empty slogans & disinformation mark PMs speech. No reassurance to crores suffering from Covid mismanagement & vaccine shortages. Growing unemployment, poverty, hunger, backbreaking prices & misery. Ominous warning that our lives will continue to be ruined further," CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said in a tweet.
Yechury further said India belongs to each one of us despite our differences.
"India belong to all of us; of all faiths, castes, colours, sounds, tastes, choices, sizes and shapes. Our Freedom struggle drew this point home with great sacrifices. We must vanquish the horror of hate. Jai Hind. Inquilab Zindabad," he said.
Yechury also posted a picture of the nine founding Politburo members of the party and hailed them as "freedom fighters".
"In sharp contrast to the RSS that not only refused to be part of the freedom struggle but, at crucial times, collaborated with the British. India's revolutionary freedom fighters," said Yechury.
CPI general secretary D Raja in a separate statement said that while the saffron party accused the Left of not celebrating Independence Day, it is the RSS that "played no role" in the freedom struggle.
"Today, under the BJP rule, even our democratic structure faces challenges. Our party fought and played a frontline role in liberating the country from British rule, today we should take a pledge to fight and liberate the country from the BJP rule," said Raja.