CPI(M) Polit Bureau has issued the following statements on November 15

THE Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) denounces the promulgation of two ordinances allowing the central government to extend the tenures of the directors of CBI and ED from two to five years.

Both the CBI and ED have been functioning as the political arm of the ruling party to advance its agenda. Leaders of opposition parties are regularly targeted. This step is meant to further subvert the autonomy of these agencies and to make the key officers more pliable. 

It is reprehensible that these ordinances have been promulgated on the eve of the winter session of parliament that is to commence from November 29. The BJP’s regular resort to the route of “ordinance raj” is anti-democratic.

These ordinances also aim to bypass the Supreme Court direction which had laid down that any extension of tenure has to be for a short period and “only in rare and exceptional circumstances” to facilitate an ongoing investigation. With these ordinances the central government can now give three one-year extensions.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) demands that these ordinances be rescinded. CPI(M) MPs will oppose the move to convert these ordinances into law in parliament.

December 1: All India Protest against Attacks on Minorities

THE Polit Bureau expresses its grave concern at the growing attacks against minority communities – Christian and Muslim – by organisations affiliated to the sangh parivar.  The recent exposures in the internal documents of social media platform – Facebook – also underline how BJP leaders have promoted highly communal messaging, provoking violence in many instances.  Not only do the perpetrators of such communal actions enjoy immunity from the law, instead of protecting the victims, the administration in many BJP-ruled states punishes the victims and those who support them with false cases and arrests under draconian clauses. 

Recent reports by human rights groups have recorded 300 attacks on Christian communities and places of their religious worships within the first nine months in 2021.  Many of the victims belong to adivasi and dalit communities.  Prayer meetings are being regularly prevented and participants beaten in the name of preventing conversions. 

Members of the Muslim minority are targeted and there are continuing cases of lynching, police killings, false arrests and mob violence against them in the name of `cow protection’ and `love jihad’.  The most recent example has been in Tripura, where VHP hoodlums attacked minority communities, including vandalising some mosques.  Those reporting these attacks have been booked under UAPA. Another example is the prevention of the right to offer prayers, which have been curtailed in Gurgaon, part of the National Capital Region.  Muslim street vendors in some parts of Madhya Pradesh have been threatened and disallowed from pursuing their livelihood. In Assam, the poor peasant families cultivating land for decades were brutally evicted only because they belong to Muslim minority.  In Uttar Pradesh, the use of NSA against Muslims has become common place. 

These attacks on minorities constitute an attack on the Constitution of India.  The CPI(M) calls upon all its units to observe December 1 as a day of protest against attacks on religious minorities and their constitutional rights.