Charging that the BJP has turned into a “menace” in the State, senior CPI (M) leader G. Ramakrishnan on Friday alleged the national party has become a threat to the secular social fabric of Tamil Nadu. The CPI (M) will expose this to the people, he told The Hindu, on the sidelines of the party’s district committee meeting in Dharmapuri.
The party will launch a pamphleteering campaign against the BJP from August 20 to 30 across the State.
Mr. Ramakrishnan flagged certain recent unsavoury incidents involving the BJP in Tamil Nadu. “A slipper was hurled at the convoy of Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan in Madurai; the locks of Bharat Mata temple at Paapireddipatti in Dharmapuri were broken open by the BJP leaders; in Tiruvarur, the district president of the BJP was booked in an examination impersonation case; in 2020, the BJP called for a bandh over a murder in Ramanathapuram over a personal feud; earlier, in Tirupur, a suicide was used to call for a bandh, even as the AIADMK government’s inquiry revealed it as a suicide,” Mr. Ramakrishnan said.
The CPI (M) campaign will take to the people all the failures of the Narendra Modi-led Union government. “In 2014, [Prime Minister] Modi promised two crore jobs annually, eight years have passed and nothing was done. There is inflation, rise in the prices of essential commodities like petrol diesel and cooking gas, and increase in GST on food, including rice. There is abrogation of the rights of the States.”
Mr. Ramakrishnan charged that the BJP was using the office of the governor to destabilise State governments. The Governor’s role until a few years ago was a formal one in the appointment of Vice-Chancellors to State universities. It was the prerogative of the State government [to shortlist three candidates] through a search committee. But, under the BJP, Governors are appointing the search committees for Vice-Chancellors in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. This is abrogation of the rights of the States, he said.
The CPI (M) hoisted the national flag at all the party offices across the country and pledged to protect secularism, the federal structure and the Constitution. In line with this, the party will consistently campaign against the BJP across the country, he said.
On September 5, Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat will take part in a rally to be organised by the party in Chennai.
