CPI(M) hits back at BJP for calling it anti-national

CPI(M) hits back at BJP for calling it anti-national

Hitting back at the BJP and RSS for calling them anti-national, CPI(M) today said the party did not want any certificate from those who "venerate" Mahatma Gandhi's assassin as a "national hero" and said they can't be 'browbeaten'.

Addressing a rally of party workers on the conclusion of 'Nava Kerala' march here, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said "we do not want any certificate from the murderers of Mahatma Gandhi. Our credentials are before the people of the country. Who are these people to call us anti-national and enemies of the country?", Yechury asked.

Coming down on RSS-BJP, he said "the RSS of today, which venerates Nathuram Godse as a national hero, has the temerity of calling us National enemies".

Alleging that a conspiracy was unfolding in the country to convert the nation into a Hindu Rashtra, he said the tendencies of authoritarianism, communal polarisation and aggressive neo-liberalism was "RSS vision of converting our secular democratic republic into their concept of fascist Hindu rashtra in our country."

"This is a big conspiracy that is unfolding under the Modi government', he said.

Continuing his attack, Yechury said aggressive communal polarisation was to divert the Modi government's failure on all fronts and the "latest attack on party headquarters was also part of it."

"They have threatened me personally at 1.30 AM. They are trying to browbeat us. We will fight and defeat them politically," he said and added that the party knows how to defend itself and the country.

"We will continue to defend irrespective of any of your attacks', he said.

Yechury alleged that the intensification of communal polarisation by RSS,'which has a hold on the Modi government, was to divert people's attention from its 'misgovernance'.

India today was facing an unprecedented crisis in the combination of three aspects-- of neo-liberalism, communal polarisation and authoritarianism that has retarded the process of development, he said.

"The aggression in terms of economic policy is combined with aggressive communal offence and now resulted in the attack on our own party head-quarters in New Delhi yesterday and in continuation of that attack on other educational  institutions like JNU in Delhi', he said.

On the Prime Minister's Foreign policy, he said it was a 'hot and cold policy' and the 'flip flop with Pakistan has resulted in India's image sharply falling and India is considered as a 'junior partner' of U.S.

Yechury also slammed the Congress led UDF government in Kerala and said the Oommen Chandy regime and the previous UPA government of Manmohan Singh were competing with each other over corruption issues.  

Yechury alleged that in less than two years, the Modi government was a "failure" on all fronts. All their slogans are "hollow" and its hallmark is "misgovernance" in all spheres.

Yechury alleged that the nation's economy was in "bad shape", industrial production had come down, crisis in the agriculture sector had worsened and the suicide rate of farmers in the country had increased by 26 per cent.

The rural employment and employment in general had declined, exports has dipped, but prices were skyrocketing, he alleged.

The Rupee was falling and despite the fall in oil prices the benefit had not been transferred to the common man, he said.

"The sum total of their economic policy direction is more and more hardship to common people, tax concessions for foreign corporates, domestic corporates and greater and greater burden on the Indian people," he said.

"This growing discontent, they want to channelise and the only way they can do it only by intensifying communal  polarisation," he said.

CPI(M) Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan, who led the month long 'Nava Kerala' march from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram, hit out at the Congress led UDF and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy over solar and bar scams and said that the Congress, which still protects the "corrupt CM", had even lost its character as a party.

Development was at a standstill in Kerala and the inefficiency and lacklustre attitude of the UDF government had created a crisis in the agricultural, traditional and educational sectors of the state, he alleged.

He also alerted people against the alleged attempt by RSS to open it's account in the state Assembly by any means.

Slamming UDF's liquor policy, Vijayan said "forced" liquor ban would cause negative results. LDF policy was not prohibition, but reducing liquor consumption, he said..

Veteran CPI(M) leader V S Achuthanandan said people of the state were watching all the developments.

In reply to senior Congress leader A K Antony's remark that CPI(M) is a party that has to be in a museum, he said the Congress party, which once had 400 MPs, had now reduced to 44.

"It is that party which has to be enclosed in glass."

Politburo member S Ramachandran Pillai and CPI(M) state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, were among those who spoke.