Veteran CPI-ML-Liberation leader Kavita Krishnan on Friday resigned from all party posts, citing some "troubling political questions" which she said was "not possible to explore" as a party leader.
Krishnan was a politburo member of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist-Liberation and had been a member of its Central Committee for over two decades.
"I requested to be relieved of my posts and responsibilities in CPIML since I needed to pursue certain troubling political questions: questions it was not possible to explore and express in my responsibilities as a CPIML leader," she said in a social media post.
There was a need to recognise the importance of "defending liberal democracies with all their flaws against rising forms of authoritarian and majoritarian populisms not just in India but around the world", she said.
"The need to recognise that it is not enough to discuss the Stalin regime, USSR, or China as failed socialisms but as some of the world's worst authoritarianisms that serve as a model for authoritarian regimes everywhere."
Krishnan added ahead that the conviction that for the fight for democracy against fascism and growing totalitarianism in India to be consistent, "we must acknowledge the entitlement to the same democratic rights and civil liberties for all people across the world, including subjects of socialist totalitarian regimes past and present".