Headlines
BJP's communal agenda has come true in one year: CPI-M
New Delhi, May 17
The CPI-M said on Sunday
that all the fears about the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) communal
agenda has come true within one year of it taking power in the country.
It
said in a statement that ever since Narendra Modi became the prime
minister in May 2014, there had been growing communal polarisation as
well as growing economic burdens on the people.
"All the
apprehensions about the BJP, an avowedly rightwing communal party coming
to power at the centre as the political arm of the RSS (Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh), have come true in the past one year.
"The BJP government has sought to systematically implement the RSS agenda.
"It
has infiltrated known RSS men into higher educational institutions,
commuanlise curriculum. The latest incident is the so-called overhauling
of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) where
internationally reputed Indian historians have been forced to quit.
"The government has refused to take action against its ministers and
MPS who have through hate speeches sought to incite people and communally
polarize them. Growing incidents of communal clashes and riots are being
reported from various parts of the country," the statement added.
The
Communist Party of India-Marxist said during the the last one year,
massive economic burdens had been imposed on the people.
"Two
massive hikes have been made in petrol and diesel prices within a span
of two weeks. Apart from adding to the overall inflationary spiral, this
constitutes a criminal attack on rural India particularly farmers who
are battling a series of bad weather conditions during the last one
year.
"Unseasonal rains have ruined standing crops and it is
estimated that 180 million hectares of agricultural crops has been
affected. Consequently, incidence of distress suicides by farmers is
growing."
The party condemned "the utterly callous attitude displayed by the BJP
government in addressing the concerns of the farmers who have suffered heavy losses".
It
said the BJP government was aggressively pursuing the neo-liberal
economic policies of the erstwhile Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
"During
the last one year, the Modi government has been pursuing nakedly
pro-big business policies and enticing foreign capital with massive
concessions.
"This will further deepen social inequalities and intensify the exploitation of the working people.
"It is backtracking on many issues that it had opposed during the UPA government period like FDI in retail trade.
"Its
backtracking on the Land Acquisition Bill is a classic case. It is only
due to the combined opposition in the Rajya Sabha that the government
was forced to send this Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.
"The way the Modi government is undermining parliamentary democracy is unprecedented."
The CPI-M accused the Modi government of contemplating major changes in the labour laws of the country.
It said it will join with other Left and democratic forces to intensify protests in the coming days.
CPI-M cites AAP-LG row to attack Modi
The CPI-M on Sunday attacked the Narendra Modi government over deteriorating centre-state relations, citing the conflict between the Lt. Governor and the AAP government in Delhi.The CPI-M said in a statement that contrary to the declared statements by Modi that his government promoted "cooperative federalism", the rights of the states were being continuously eroded.
"Clearly, this Modi government is moving towards a unitary form of government that is completely violative of the federal structure in our constitutional scheme of things."
It said the special category status traditionally granted to all the northeastern states had been eroded. New Delhi was also unilaterally appointing its known political workers as governors in states, it said.
"Another affront to centre-state relations has now surfaced between the
central government appointed Lt. Governor of Delhi and the democratically
elected Delhi state government," it said.
The reference was to the strong objection taken by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to the appointment of a senior bureaucrat by Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung as acting chief secretary without Kejriwal's consent.
The CPI-M said it "denounces such anti-democratic acts of this central government and calls upon the opposition parties to raise protests against the further erosion of the states' rights and deteriorating centre-state relations".