Centre ‘conspiring’ to escalate tensions in Kashmir for Lok Sabha poll gains: Sitaram Yechury

“The government had promised it would immediately take a confidence-building measure and stop pellet gun usage in Kashmir. It had promised to start a political process of dialogue with all stakeholders. However, for the last six months, they have done nothing of this sort. For not doing so, friction between the people and government in Kashmir intensified, and we are all witnessing the result. The government’s policy in Kashmir has failed. It wants to escalate tension so it can reap benefits in 2019 Lok Sabha election,” he added.

Yechury also said PM Modi had a “communal agenda” for speaking against “triple talaq”.

“Narendra Modi goes all over the country saying ‘I am concerned about my Muslim sisters’. We have also said it needs to be reformed. In Rajya Sabha, we had passed Women’s Reservation Bill. We don’t have a majority in Lok Sabha, so we could not pass it. Today, Modi has a majority. Why is he not passing it? If you are concerned about women, why don’t you do this? What about husbands leaving wives without saying triple talaq? Modi himself has done it. Modi did not say triple talaq to his wife. What about that? What about widow remarriage not being permitted in Modi’s own constituency, which is the collection of the world’s largest number of single Hindu widows (Banaras)?” he said.

Yechury further said there is a need for all secular political parties to come together to discuss the presidential candidate.

“Under the present circumstances, the person who will be the President should have impeccable secular credentials. The President is ultimately the custodian of the Constitution. The Constitution of the country says India is a secular democratic republic. So we want the candidate to be a person who will have a secular supervision of the country instead of having a communal supervision,” he said.

Asked if his party would hold talks with TMC in this regard, Yechury said: “This is not a political alliance. It will be good if all parties keep aside their political differences and come together in this regard. Yesterday, I met Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneshwar. Before that, we met with leaders of other parties like JDU and NCP. Let us first work out the commonality of the candidate. Only then the consultations will come.”