AS the campaign for the ensuing state assembly elections is underway, senior CPI(M) leaders undertook a whirlwind tour in many parts of Tamil Nadu over the last fortnight. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury campaigned in support of CPI and CPI(M) candidates in Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur, Pudukkottai and Dindigul districts. Polit Bureau member Brinda Karat attended public meetings at many places in Madurai and Thoothukudi districts in support of Party’s candidates in Thiruparankundram and Kovilpatti constituencies on March 26 and 27. On March 29 and 30, Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat addressed public meetings in support of DMK candidates in Chennai, Tiruppur and Coimbatore districts. Similar campaign was undertaken by Polit Bureau member G Ramakrishnan, state secretary K Balakrishnan, and Central Committee members T K Rangarajan, A Soundararajan, P Sampath and U Vasuki across the state in support of the DMK-led Secular Progressive Front.

CPI(M) leaders asserted that the AIADMK government is not independent and indeed is acting as a slave government to the BJP.  They reminded that considering the escalation of hate-mongering in the BJP-ruled states across the country, a return of AIADMK will pave way for the BJP and the RSS to further extend their tentacles of hatred and vicious deeds into Tamil Nadu.

CPI(M) leaders have pointed out that the RSS-controlled-BJP governments, both at the centre and the states, are trying to impose their goal of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ by targeting minorities, dalits and other oppressed sections and reducing them to the status of second-class citizens by imposing all-upper caste order in their domain. There is an active discrimination against religious minorities in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other BJP-ruled states, they said.

The leaders highlighted how the BJP has unleashed draconian Acts like the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) to arrest hundreds of people. Anybody who raises a voice of opposition or dissent in the BJP-ruled states is declared as an anti-national and put behind bars and no section of the people is immune to such Acts, they said.

CPI(M) leaders said that the AIADMK, due to its own compulsions, is surrendering the hard-won rights of the state and thereby endangering the lives of the people in the state. They added that through its active support in Rajya Sabha, the AIADMK was instrumental in the passing of legislation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), farm bills and labour codes which were designed to bring misery to the minorities, peasants and working class sections across the country.

The leaders said that even within the state, the AIADMK government was only executing the anti-people directives of the BJP. The shooting and killing of 13 innocent people at Thoothukudi during the peaceful anti-Sterlite agitation, serious manoeuvres to execute the eight-lane Salem-Chennai Expressway project, Kattupalli Port project of Adani have proved that this government is in no position to take up any policy matter that was not to the liking of Modi and Amit Shah.

They pointed out that the BJP at the centre, with the connivance of the AIADMK government, is vigorously implementing schemes which are inimical to the interests of the people of Tamil Nadu. Be it NEET, the eight-lane Salem-Chennai Expressway project or opening away the natural resources to the avarice of Ambani-Adani groups, the AIADMK is acting to the detriment of the people and negating the development achieved so far in the fields of education and health care.

The CPI(M) leaders exhorted the people of Tamil Nadu to decisively defeat AIADMK and elect the candidates of DMK-led Secular Progressive Front. Only such a resolute defeat of the BJP-RSS combine in the assembly election will ensure the recovery of rights of the state and restore the past glory in the field of social justice, they said. They asserted that the election is crucial to trigger a wave of opposition across the country against the anti-people and pro-corporate BJP and RSS combine who are masquerading behind the shadow of AIADMK in the state.

The huge gathering in these public meetings and campaign trail of the CPI(M) across the state showed that the people of Tamil Nadu are intent to give a crushing defeat to AIADMK and its alliance partners in the elections.