The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on February 29.

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) condemns the registering of a case of sedition against Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the CPI(M), and other leaders of opposition parties, in Hyderabad. The FIR has been lodged by the police ostensibly because these leaders had extended support to the students of JNU who are protesting against the arrest on sedition case of leaders of the students union and other student organisations.

The manner in which the sedition clause is being used in this case underlines the necessity to scrap the sedition clause 124A in the Indian Penal Code. The CPI(M) demands the withdrawal of the cases against the opposition leaders and all others named in the FIR.

The Polit Bureau warns the central government to desist from actions which suppress democratic rights and freedoms in the country by branding dissent and opposition as “anti-national”.