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Srinagar: Broad secular front needed to save the nation, says Sitaram Yechury
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury also questioned the promotion of ‘The Kashmir Files’, saying the film has been made to ‘create hatred’ and skips questions like the role of then governor and why Sikhs and others didn’t migrate
General secretary of Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram Yechury on Thursday stressed on the development of a ‘broad secular front’ before elections so that the BJP is isolated and defeated to ‘save the constitution and nation’s institutions’.
Yechury also questioned the promotion of ‘The Kashmir Files’, saying the film has been made to ‘create hatred’ and skips questions like the role of then governor and why Sikhs and others didn’t migrate.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar, Yechury said that the CPIM was holding conferences in individual states and has decided to hold an All India Congress against the “weakening of the country’s institutions and constitution” from April 6 to 10 in Kerala.
“Our top priority is to save the nation and constitution and safeguard the rights of citizens on the basis of equality. If that is to be done, then it is necessary to remove this BJP government. For that, leftist and democratic forces have to be strengthened and at the same time, whenever elections come, a broadest possible front of secular forces should be made,” he said.
“India’s situation is declining in the world in terms of the human indices like global hunger index, global freedom index, and press freedom index. We are not a democracy now, but an electoral autocracy,” he said, adding that the secular parties may have differences, which can be set aside for saving the nation.
‘The Kashmir Files is a film creating hatred’
The CPIM general secretary said that during elections, instead of issues like poverty, the PM raises emotional and polarising issues.
“All these emotional questions are aimed to create division among the people of the country. The same emotional process continues and has now reached the film, The Kashmir Files,” he added. He questioned the PM why a film on Gujarat riots wasn’t allowed to be seen.
Yechury said India had an independent foreign policy, which was focused and had respect and position in the world, but has finished today.
“The independent voice of India which the world would hear with respect is gone,” he said, adding that in the Russia-Ukraine war, India had been ‘extending’ on resolutions. “India has been reduced as a junior partner of the USA’s strategic global concerns,” The CPIM leader said.
On abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, Yechury said their petition is in the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the decision.
“The more time the apex court takes to hear the issue, the more time the government gets to implement that de-facto. Till the time the question of its constitutional validity is resolved, there should be a prevention on introducing new laws, amending other laws and the delimitation,” he said.
The CPIM leader also condemned the recent violence in West Bengal in which eight persons lost their lives and said that the formation of an SIT was just an attempt by government to suppress the truth.
