Chennai: CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Wednesday alleged that the BJP was trying to impose "institutional emergency" in the country, akin to what former prime minister Indira Gandhi did in 1975, without officially declaring it.
"The constitutional right of equality is being completely undermined and in fact denied, particularly to the Muslims and the Dalits," he told reporters here. Yechury said there was a "question mark" over the impartiality of the Election Commission. He alleged that Parliament was under "direct attack" as its sessions were getting truncated. "What Indira Gandhi did during the Emergency by trying to create a committed judiciary....., the BJP is seeking to impose institutional emergency without an official declaration," he claimed.
His reaction came in the wake of Union minister Arun Jaitley's Facebook post accusing the Left party of being inactive during the struggle against the Emergency. Jaitley had tweeted,"....Though theoretically the CPI(M) was opposed to the Emergency and critical of it, it was not an active participant in the struggle against the Emergency." Yechury said the CPI(M) was in the forefront of the fight against the Emergency and continues to fight the "institutional emergency" that the Modi government was trying to impose now. The manner in which the BJP is marking the 43rd anniversary of the Emergency is an attempt to divert people's attention from the "unbearable burdens" imposed by the BJP government, he said. The Left party leader alleged that the ruling party at the Centre was indulging in communal polarisation in several states ahead of the 2019 general elections. On the Tamil Nadu government's Rs 10,000 crore Salem Expressway project, he said his party could not perceive the logic behind it. "The Tamil Nadu gvernment could have expanded the existing highways. Perhaps there involves issuing huge contracts. So you know what that means. Elections are coming. Maybe there are some industrial houses which they (government) want to please," he claimed. Yechury said the governor's role has come under a question mark after what happened in Karnataka, Goa, Manipur and Bihar and called for abolition of the gubernatorial post. On the CPI(M')s alliance strategy for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said the party's state committees would discuss the current situations in their respective states. "The committees will discuss with other Left parties and take a common approach. The objective is to remove the Modi government from office. Each state will have its own issues and agenda. This whole exercise should be complete by September," he said.
