News Analysis India

Tag: Yechury

  • Bigger platform of secular forces needed to counter challenges posed by BJP: Yechury

    By PTI

    AGARTALA: CPI(M) general secretary Sitram Yechury on Wednesday stressed the need for forming a bigger platform of secular forces to counter the challenges posed by the saffron camp.

    Attempts are being made to push for fascistic Hindutva’ in the country by scuttling the Constitutional spirit, Yechury said at a party programme here.

    “The four main pillars of Indian democracy – secularism, economic sovereignty, social justice and federalism – are at stake. The government is not accountable as Parliament has stopped functioning properly,” he said. The Constitution could not be saved if the BJP is not uprooted from power, the CPI(M) leader claimed.

    “Besides consolidating the strength of the CPI (M) and other Left parties, there is a need to bring all secular forces together to counter the challenges the county is facing now. The united fight of security forces can save the country from becoming a fascistic Hindutva state,” he said.

    Launching a scathing attack on the BJP, Yechury alleged that the central government has been trying to destroy the spirit of the secular democratic republic, the foundation of the Indian constitution.

    Claiming that the BJP has brought in ‘bulldozer politics’, the CPI(M) general secretary claimed that those who are following the Constitution are being sent to jail while garland is offered to those violating it. The party in power at the Centre continues to form government no matter if it loses or wins polls, he said.

    “Elections are not being conducted free and fairly. The BJP has been able to form government in some states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh even after defeats,” he said.

    On the release of the 11 life convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, he said they were set free following the recommendation of the BJP government in Gujarat.

    “It is good the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case,”, he said. The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider listing a plea challenging the grant of remission by the Gujarat government to 11 life convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

    Bano, who was pregnant at that time, was gang-raped while 14 people including her three-year-old daughter, were killed during the Gujarat riot in 2002. Former chief minister and CPI(M) Politburo member Manik Sarkar and the party’s state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury also spoke on the occasion.

    AGARTALA: CPI(M) general secretary Sitram Yechury on Wednesday stressed the need for forming a bigger platform of secular forces to counter the challenges posed by the saffron camp.

    Attempts are being made to push for fascistic Hindutva’ in the country by scuttling the Constitutional spirit, Yechury said at a party programme here.

    “The four main pillars of Indian democracy – secularism, economic sovereignty, social justice and federalism – are at stake. The government is not accountable as Parliament has stopped functioning properly,” he said. The Constitution could not be saved if the BJP is not uprooted from power, the CPI(M) leader claimed.

    “Besides consolidating the strength of the CPI (M) and other Left parties, there is a need to bring all secular forces together to counter the challenges the county is facing now. The united fight of security forces can save the country from becoming a fascistic Hindutva state,” he said.

    Launching a scathing attack on the BJP, Yechury alleged that the central government has been trying to destroy the spirit of the secular democratic republic, the foundation of the Indian constitution.

    Claiming that the BJP has brought in ‘bulldozer politics’, the CPI(M) general secretary claimed that those who are following the Constitution are being sent to jail while garland is offered to those violating it. The party in power at the Centre continues to form government no matter if it loses or wins polls, he said.

    “Elections are not being conducted free and fairly. The BJP has been able to form government in some states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh even after defeats,” he said.

    On the release of the 11 life convicts in the Bilkis Bano case, he said they were set free following the recommendation of the BJP government in Gujarat.

    “It is good the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case,”, he said. The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider listing a plea challenging the grant of remission by the Gujarat government to 11 life convicts in the Bilkis Bano gangrape case.

    Bano, who was pregnant at that time, was gang-raped while 14 people including her three-year-old daughter, were killed during the Gujarat riot in 2002. Former chief minister and CPI(M) Politburo member Manik Sarkar and the party’s state secretary Jitendra Chowdhury also spoke on the occasion.

  • You want to make films to create hatred, raise issues which divide people: Yechury slams BJP

    By PTI

    SRINAGAR: The country cannot be saved if hatred and violence-based politics is not stopped, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said on Thursday while accusing the BJP of “raising only those issues which divide the people.”

    At a press conference, he referred to the film, ‘The Kashmir Files’, which has kicked up a political storm, and said movies that tend to create a divide cannot solve any problems but will create new ones.

    “A film was made on Godhra and Gujarat riots — ‘Parzania’. But did you let it be screened? We can make films, but will you allow it to be shown? Or you want only those films which depict your ideology?” Yechury said.

    He stressed that to really understand what happened when the Kashmiri Pandits left the Valley, to know the reality, the role of the then governor of Jammu and Kashmir should also be highlighted.

    “Attacks took place on Sikhs and on Muslims as well. Why did not the Sikhs or others migrate? We need answers to those questions also. But you just want to make a film to create hatred. This will not solve any problems, but create new ones,” he said.

    He alleged that the BJP “does not talk about hunger or the condition of the people”.

    “The whole issue in the Uttar Pradesh elections was 80 per cent versus 20 per cent, or bulldozer at a public meeting, which was symbolic, or the prime minister talking about ‘qabrastaan and shamshaan’, or about jihad or dress code like Hijab.

    “They raise emotive issues which divide the people of the country. The condition is such that the Editors Guild has issued a statement expressing concern over polarisation, saying it is dangerous,” Yechury said.

    The CPI(M) general secretary said that militant attacks on people, including his party’s activists, happened even before 1990.

    The SSP of Srinagar, in a reply to an RTI last year, had stated that 89 Kashmiri Pandits were killed in militancy-related incidents since 1990, while 1,635 people from other faiths were killed, he mentioned.

    “This is the police saying and this is the truth. Why is it not coming forward? We have sympathy for the Kashmiri Pandits and have fought for their rights.

    “But, if this politics based on hatred and violence is not stopped, then this country cannot be saved. And for that, the Constitution and constitutional institutions need to be saved,” Yechury said.