Prakash Karat: As long as Modi is in power, free-thinking voices will face repression

Politburo member Prakash Karat said since the BJP assumed power at the Centre in 2014, there had been a series of assaults on secularism, the republic of India and its democratic structure. Karat appealed to all secular forces to close ranks and build a unified movement against the BJP. “As long as the Modi government is in power, any free thinking voice of the Opposition will face repression. Laws like the UAPA were made to act against terrorist organizations. But today they are applied on trade union activists, farm leaders or anyone fighting for their rights. This government abuses the CBI, ED…. To protect democracy and save the Constitution, it is very important for all secular forces to come together and put up a joint fight. The CPIM and Left parties can play the strongest role in this fight,” the former party general secretary said.

Karat said the Left alliance would prepare alternative programmes for the welfare of people, along the lines of the initiatives from the Left era in the state as well as those implemented in Left-ruled Kerala.

Politburo member and former chief minister Manik Sarkar said the Constitution had not been operational in the state since the “fascist, terror regime” of the BJP came to power in 2018. “Electoral rights are stolen and conspiracies are hatched to silence opposition voices. Tall promises made before elections have fallen flat and people have been betrayed. There is no work or food. Many are selling their children or are forced to leave the state in search of food and work,” he said.

Terming the BJP-led state government as nikamma (good for nothing), Sarkar urged his party workers to get all secular, pro-democracy people– irrespective of religion, caste or creed–to unite against the saffron party’s alleged attempts to rig elections. “From panchayats to the Lok Sabha, votes have been stolen. In the elections ahead, will you allow the BJP to do it? We have to take a pledge that each of us will cast our own vote. We will not allow anyone to steal our votes anymore,” the former chief minister said.

As the turnout at the rally was less than expected, CPI(M) leaders claimed “thousands of the party’s supporters” were intimidated, assaulted and prevented from attending the rally.

The party says 27 of its workers have been killed and over 300 others assaulted in political violence in the state since 2018.

State secretary Jitendra Chaudhury also said the BJP was destroying the constitutional framework of the country. He also alleged the party was pushing the youth of the state into violence, drugs and hatred.