The CPI-M leader said that the BJP is using hate politics and Hindutva identity to win elections by putting all the other teething issues faced by the people of the country in the back-burner, reports Asian Lite News
The General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram Yechury, has called for a broad alliance of Left, secular and democratic forces to unseat the BJP.
He said the ‘Hindu Rashtra’ ideology of the BJP is the biggest challenge faced by the country, and the saffron party is trying to replace the secular and democratic traditions of the country with this ideology.
The CPI-M leader was delivering the inaugural address at the 23rd party conference at Madurai on Wednesday.
Yechuri said that even after the protests over the Citizenship Amendment Act, farm laws, and the popular discontent against the Union government on the rising fuel prices and economic policies, the BJP is having an edge in the elections in the country.
The CPI-M leader said that the BJP is using hate politics and Hindutva identity to win elections by putting all the other teething issues faced by the people of the country in the back-burner.
He also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of promoting the movie ‘The Kashmir Files’, which he said speaks only about the killings of Kashmiri Pandits by the militants in the 1990s.
He said the movie doesn’t talk about the murder of 1,635 people of other faiths, including Muslims, by the militants in Kashmir during the same period.
Yechury also came slammed Vice President for supporting the promotion of Bhagavad Gita in educational institutions, asking why the government is not promoting texts of other religions.
He said that India is a secular country and that Gita only justifies caste hierarchy and caste atrocities in the society.
The CPI-M leader cited the examples of Gita justifying subjugating women, and added that Sudras were depicted as manual scavengers in the text.
He said that promoting such a reactionary, backward, and exploitative system should not be allowed.
The CPI-M General Secretary said that in Scandinavian countries, right-wing governments were thrown out by the people and replaced with Left governments, adding that countries like Chile, Honduras and Peru had strongly resisted the imperial hegemony of the United States.
Secretary of Tamil Nadu CPI-M, K. Balakrishnan, and other senior leaders were present in the meeting.
General strike against central govt
The Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday congratulated the working class for the successful 48-hour general strike held on March 28 and 29 in the country. Millions of workers responded to the call given by 10 Central Trade Unions and various sectoral federations, the official statement on Tuesday said.
According to reports, there was a total shutdown in Kerala and the strike had a huge impact in major industrial centres in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Karnataka, Assam and Tripura.
Insurance and banking services saw total participation in the strike. Large number of workers in key sectors like transport, electricity, state government and central government employees, scheme workers also participated in the strike.
The success of the strike reflects the growing anger against the BJP government’s policies of monetisation of national assets, privatisation of public sector units, four labour codes and price rise, the statement said. The strike call was actively supported by various Kisan organisations, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) and agricultural workers’ organisations.
The CPI-M condemns the high-handedness of police in certain states. The government should heed to the workers’ demands instead of resorting to repression. This general strike should be a warning to the government not to pursue anti-working class policies, the Party said.
