Leaders of the six Left parties –  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) met in New Delhi on February 19. They have issued the following statement.

THE Left parties strongly condemn the attack launched by the RSS-BJP against the Left and all other progressive forces. 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 Left parties while strongly condemning the attack mounted by the RSS under the patronage of this BJP-led NDA government against the Jawaharlal Nehru University see this as part of a larger design by the communal forces to carry forward their agenda in institutions of higher learning. This systemic pattern is clearly visible in the incidents in Film and 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 are 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 Left parties demand 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JNU Students Union president, Kanhaiya Kumar must be released and all cases of sedition filed against students must be withdrawn forthwith.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.

The Left parties have decided to call for an all India protest from February 23 to 25, against the machinations of the central government under RSS guidance. This countrywide campaign amongst the people to expose such attacks on the people including the violence in the courts will be under the banner “Defend People’s Constitutional Rights”.

The Left parties appeal to all progressive, democratic and secular forces to join this protest.

As part of the countrywide protest in defence of the constitutional rights, democracy and against the government’s attack on the academic institutions, Left parties staged demonstrations all over the country.