CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, in a statement issued on June 17, has  said that he is joining the protest rally to the prime minister’s residence on June 17, to express serious condemnation over the manner in which federalism, a fundamental feature of our constitution, is being undermined by this BJP central government.

Utilising the office of the governors and Lt. Governors, the BJP central government is seeking to destabilise non-BJP democratically elected state governments. This is happening with the democratically elected governments in Delhi and in Puducherry. The office of the governor was sought to be utilised to hijack people’s mandate in Karnataka, which was thwarted. The governor’s office was used to install BJP governments even after they have lost the elections, like in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya. The governor’s office has been misused in Bihar to allow the BJP to enter the government through the backdoor after losing the assembly elections comprehensively.

Such efforts are destroying the already fragile centre-state relations which is the backbone of the federal content of the Indian constitution.

This must not be permitted.

The Communists in India were the first victims of such central authoritarian misuse of constitutional provisions when the democratically elected government in Kerala was undemocratically dismissed in 1957. This has happened with Left-led governments repeatedly in Kerala and West Bengal subsequently.