In a joint statement issued today, top leaders of six Left parties strongly condemned “the attack launched by the RSS-BJP against the Left and all other progressive forces” and gave a call for an all-India protest from February 23 to 25, “against the machinations of the Central government under RSS
guidance”.
“It is clear that under the false allegation of being ‘anti-national’ the RSS-BJP have mounted an all-India attack against the Indian people,” the statement added. It appealed to all progressive, left and secular forces to join the protest under the “Defend People’s Constitutional Rights” banner.
The Left parties demanded that the JNU Students Union president, Kanhaiya Kumar must be released and all cases of sedition filed against students must be withdrawn forthwith. “No harassment and witch hunting must be allowed. The truth has now come out that most of the evidence produced by the government was fabricated. Those who have fabricated the evidence and propagated it must be punished under the law,” said the statement.
The statement strongly condemned “the attack mounted by the RSS under the patronage of this BJP-led NDA government” against the Jawaharlal Nehru University stating that this was part of “a larger design by the communal forces to carry forward their agenda in institutions of higher learning”. This systemic pattern, it stated, was clearly visible in the incidents in Film & Television Institute of India, Hyderabad Central University leading to the tragic suicide of Rohith Vemula, the incidents in IIT Chennai and now in Jadavpur University.
“It is clear that the RSS-BJP is mounting an open attack on the democratic and constitutional rights of the people. Further, such attacks are part of the efforts to sharpen communal polarisation in the country to also divert the attention of the people from the growing burdens being imposed upon them by the total failure of this NDA-led Modi government on all fronts”, the statement added.
The joint statement was issued today following a meeting in Delhi. It was attended by Sitaram Yechury, Prakash Karat and S Ramachandran Pillai [CPI(M)], Sudhakar Reddy, Gurudas Dasgupta and D Raja [CPI], Swapan Mukherjee [CPI(ML)-Liberation], Abani Roy [RSP], Pran Sharma [SUCI(C)] and Debabrata Biswas [AIFB].