AIADMK complicit in BJP’s hate policies, says Yechury

March 06, 2021 04:34 am | Updated 10:13 am IST - DHARMAPURI / SALEM

CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury speaking at a public meeting in Dharmapuri on Friday.

CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury speaking at a public meeting in Dharmapuri on Friday.

The AIADMK was complicit in the BJP’s hate policies and other crimes and therefore deserves to be shown out in the Assembly election, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said in Dharmapuri on Friday.

This is a crucial election coming at a time when there is an all-around attack on the people, their livelihoods, and the Constitution under the BJP.

That was the reason the BJP and its ally, the AIADMK that was complicit in its crimes, needed to be defeated, he said.

MSMEs decimated

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was high unemployment, recession, and retrenchment exacerbated by demonetisation and GST. The nationwide lockdown decimated the informal sector, MSMEs, with over 15 crore jobs lost during the period.

Under the AIADMK, “blindly chiming to the tune of the BJP”, Tamil Nadu had become the worst indebted State in the country. “Every newborn in Tamil Nadu was born with a debt of ₹60,000,” he quipped.

Mr. Yechury alleged that despite doing the BJP’s bidding, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami or his deputy O. Panneerselvam got just ₹6,000 crore as cyclone relief though it asked the Centre for ₹1.60 lakh crore.

The entire working class was on a war path against the Modi government, Mr. Yechury said. There were struggles against the dismantling of the labour laws, farm laws, and privatisation of the public sector units.

While the Modi government was refusing relief to the people, it was dividing them with hatred. The BJP ruled States passed “love jihad” laws targeting the youth and Muslims.

“We are all products of our multiple identities, which the BJP wanted to erase with the support of the AIADMK,” he charged, calling upon the electorate to vote out the incumbent government.

Earlier, he told journalists in Salem that the BJP was facing an uphill task in all poll-bound States including Assam where the party was in power.

According to him, the credibility of the Left is definitely growing and it is the Left that stuck to its principles and ideology. Tamil Nadu needs a change and the best opportunity for it is under the leadership of the DMK, he said.

On the recent fall of the Congress government in Puducherry, he said, “BJP has formed governments with just three MLAs, their upper hand is money not people’s support.” Besides, central agencies like Enforcement Directorate and CBI are used.

On permitting postal votes for persons above 80 years, he said physically verifiability of voters should not be compromised. The eight-phase elections in West Bengal was to help the BJP since it did not have any prominent leader there.

Mr. Modi’s admiration of Tamil, he said, was hypocrisy and it is to mislead people. It is against PM’s ideology because “they believe in one nation, one language, one culture.”

Mr.Yechury charged that even COVID-19 vaccination was a political programme for Mr Modi.

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