Pitching for Opposition unity against the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre, Communist Party of India (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said all the Left and secular forces would come together against the BJP in the 2024 general elections. He was addressing a public meeting at Gandhi Maidan in Patna as part of the party’s nationwide anti-BJP campaign.
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Quoting the example of the movement against the Indira Gandhi Government that began with Jai Prakash Narayan’s call for total revolution in Patna, Mr. Yechury said the movement against the Modi Government would also begin in Bihar. “Today again the time has come to save democracy, secularism, the Constitution and the country from the BJP-RSS. All the Left and secular forces in Bihar and throughout India will come together and mobilise the people to oust the Modi regime in 2024. Like in 1974, the road to Indraprastha will again begin from Pataliputra,” Mr. Yechury said at the rally.
Mr. Yechury had met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad on Wednesday. Speaking to The Hindu before the rally, Mr. Yechury said the concept of Opposition unity was not limited to a pre-poll alliance. “We will have to counter the BJP in every State. But at the national level we will have a synchronised and united campaign.” He also praised Mr. Prasad for being the only non-Left and non-Congress party to consistently resist the right wing forces.
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Price rise
Ashok Dhawale, Bihar in-charge of the party, said the Centre’s policies led to astronomical price rise, unemployment, poverty and hunger, and they attacked the working class, peasantry, agricultural workers, women, youth and students.
“It [the Modi Government] is shamelessly selling off the country to its crony corporates, and is using the British imperialist policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ on the basis of religion and caste,” Mr. Dhawale said.
(With PTI inputs)