BJP-CPI(M) war intensifies as parties take Kerala war to Delhi
Going on the counter-offensive against the BJP-RSS over political killings in Kerala, the CPI (M) termed the saffron brigade’s campaign against “Marxist-Jihadi violence” a ploy to divert the attention from the abject failures of the Modi government and the corruption charges against Amit Shah’s son.
On a day when the BJP continued with its “Janaraksha Yatra” in Kerala and Delhi, the CPI(M) held a protest march in the national capital over the killings of Marxist activists by the RSS in the southern state.
Led by party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, his predecessor Prakash Karat and politburo member Brinda Karat, Left activists marched to the BJP headquarters denouncing the RSS’s terror and the failures of the Modi government.
“Over 200 of our activists have been killed including 85 since 2001, by the RSS. Their violence has continued unabated and their latest attack has injured five our people and five policemen,” said Yechury referring to the Sunday’s crude bomb attack on a CPI(M) rally in Panoor in Kannur district of Kerala.
He said Shah's Yatra in Kerala was to reignite the RSS-BJP's criminal attacks against the Left.
‘Janaraksha Yatra a diversionary ploy’
“The Janaraksha Yatra is a classic example of "ulta chor kotwal ko daante (thief scolding the police)". All this is being done to divert the attention of the people from the failures of the Modi government,” Yechury said.
“This is happening at a time when corruption charges are being made against the BJP chief’s (Amit Shah) son,” he added. Yechury is among a host of Opposition leaders demanding a thorough probe following a media report that Jay Shah’s company turnover rose by 16,000 times soon after the BJP came to power at the centre.
“Allegations against Amit Shah’s son are very serious and need to be probed. His son has misused this government in order to accumulate riches in a clandestine fashion. The Modi government has been tom-tomming that they will not tolerate corruption, but we have seen that allegations after allegations have been made but the government has kept mum,” Yechury had said.
The BJP has rebutted the charges against Jay made by the news portal and said Shah’s son will file a defamation suit.
Economy in shambles
“More than three years have passed but this government has not fulfilled a single promise it made. The economy is in a shambles, the economic burden on the people is rising by the day, in the name of cow protection communal poison is engulfing the country, Muslims and Dalits are being relentlessly attacked,” Yechury said.
The CPI(M) general secretary further tweeted:
As BJP stokes violence and does tamashas, we march to ask basic questions affecting millions of Indians. The BJP must answer.
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) October 9, 2017
Farmers. What happened to the Price they should get? We wrote to the PM in June. There must be the Right to a fair MSP. #NoToBJPDistractions pic.twitter.com/JQvdobleBP
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) October 9, 2017
Where are the Jobs? Promised 10 crore new Jobs. Instead, Indians lost Jobs. #BJPMustAnswer #NoSpin pic.twitter.com/vdB72qBUWu
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) October 9, 2017
Why has the BJP govt not made names of big defaulters public? Instead, gifting them public money. Why? BJP must answer. #NoToBJPDistractions pic.twitter.com/LnXnzG0b0U
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) October 9, 2017
BJP’s campaign gets lukewarm response
Hoping to dent the Marxist bastion of Kerala, Shah with much fanfare had launched the fortnight long yatra on 3 October against “Marxist-Jihadi violence”.
The BJP even deployed UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath a major proponent of the “love jihad” campaign.
Besides accusing the Left for killing of 120 of its activists, the RSS-BJP have alleged Kerala becoming an “ISIS hub” under the Marxists and claimed that 'love jihad' was rampant.
However, the BJP’s cow and Hindutva politics has failed to find many takers and the yatra has evoked lukewarm response despite union ministers and prominent BJP leaders being deputed.
Shah, who cut short his Kerala visit, then spearheaded the yatra in national capital on 8 October.
Brinda Karat ridiculed Shah for his Kerala yatra.
“Rejected by the people of Kerala, Shah and the BJP are trying to flex their muscle in Delhi. But even here their campaign of spreading misinformation and canards will have no takers,” she said.
‘Communists are anti-national’
Continuing the protest march in Delhi, Union ministers V K Singh and Kiren Rijiju on Monday upped the ante against the Communists calling them “anti-national”.
“We will not allow anti-national forces in India. Communist parties comprise a big chunk of those forces which work against the interest of the country. Their ideology, their thinking is anti-national and they keep working against the country. They (Left) have been uprooted from most parts of the country and are only left in places like Kerala. But even there they won’t remain for long,” said Rijiju, the Minister of State for Home.
He said the killing of RSS-BJP workers in Kerala was “sponsored by the Pinarayi Vijayan-led state government.
“Had the Congress been power and their workers butchered like this, it wouldn’t have tolerated and imposed President’s rule in Kerala. But we are not like them. We believe in democracy, we will fight and uproot the communists democratically,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion Minister of State for External Affairs, General (Red.) VK Singh said: "Wherever Left parties have been power, they always pursued the politics of violence and death. We will not be cowed down by this politics of death and we will awaken the people and defeat these left forces”.
Police had to use water cannons after BJP protestors tried to break barricades outside the CPI (M) headquarters.
First published: 9 October 2017, 17:33 IST