New Delhi: Left parties on Monday said they will "fight out" any threat and are "not worried" about being labelled as "anti-national" for their stance on the JNU row after CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury allegedly received threat calls over the issue.
Condemning the episode, the JD(U), which has been supporting the students, termed the alleged threats to Yechury as an "attack" on the freedom of speech and likened the developments to a "new kind" of Emergency.
"All this (threat calls), we are prepared to face, we are not worried. We are not worried about being labelled as anti-national. We are prepared to face this and we will fight it out," CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat said.
Karat said the threat calls and the attack on CPI(M) headquarters in Delhi are "responses" by right-wing outfits to the Left party's "firm" stand against "assault" on the students' community in JNU and "government-sponsored imposition of Hindutva ideology" on the campuses.
"So, obviously, those forces are angry with us and this is what they try to do at our office," he added. CPI national secretary D Raja, who too had claimed to have received similar calls over his support to the protesters, said the parties will take up the issue formally with the government now.
"I do get threat calls. When we met the Home Minister, I did raise the issue with him that we are getting anonymous calls, threatening to shoot us down. All these things are happening. So, we will be taking it up formally with the government," Raja added.
JD(U) Parliamentarian KC Tyagi likened the entire episode to the days of Emergency. "This is an attack on the freedom of speech, freedom of political parties to function. We had seen such incidents during the Emergency. This is new kind of Emergency we are witnessing," Tyagi said.
The CPI(M) has claimed that Yechury received threat calls for supporting students protesting JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar's arrest.
