The CPI(M) on Sunday criticised the AIADMK's decision to send its representatives to Ahmedabad, where Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi began a three-day fast for peace, unity and harmony on Saturday.
“We disagree with the AIADMK's decision to send emissaries there. We think it is a wrong decision,” CPI (M) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury told reporters when asked about the party's Tamil Nadu election ally Jayalalithaa's decision to send party leaders M. Thambidurai and V. Maitreyan to Mr. Modi's fast venue.
Criticising the Gujarat Chief Minister's fast for communal harmony, Mr. Yechury said, “In the recent political history of our country, we have not seen an enactment of such an irony” as Mr. Modi, he alleged, was the “person who presided over the worst communal genocide in the country that happened in Gujarat in 2002.”
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“There cannot be anything that is more ironical,” he added.
The CPI(M) leader said the BJP leader's fast is “an effort to distract public attention and to misinterpret the Supreme Court directive” in the Gulbarga Society case.
“The Supreme Court direction actually goes a step forward, beyond what has been asked for by the victims. The victims have been asking for filing of an FIR against Modi. The Supreme Court has ordered the trial court to proceed on a trial on the basis of a report filed by the amicus curiae. So it has gone much beyond the stage of an FIR. And the trial has to proceed now,” Mr. Yechury said.
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He also alleged that Mr. Modi is sitting on fast to emerge as the Prime Ministerial candidate of the BJP which is facing a “severe inner struggle” on the issue.
“At present, everybody knows, the country knows there is a very severe inner struggle within the BJP as to who will be its Prime Ministerial candidate...You have Advani's rath yatra, you have this fast by Modi,” Mr. Yechury said.