A MASSIVE rally organised in Bijapur, Karnataka, by the Samvidhaan Bachao Aandolan, was well attended by over 400,000 people on February 24.  Sitaram Yechury, general secretary of the  CPI(M) addressed it along with other leaders that includes Siddaramaiah, former chief minister of Karnataka and Mallikarjun Kharge, former leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha.

Sitaram Yechury while addressing the rally said that Modi and Shah have paranoia of terming all those who oppose them as “anti-nationals”. This is done to hide their abject failure in ruling this country. He said that fissures are being created amongst the people and divisive politics is at an astounding low in Modi regime.

Yechury exhorted that in this beautiful country there are many holy books for people following different religions, but for all of them and for all those who are patriots and believe in the idea of India there is another holy book and that is the Constitution of India. He said efforts to violate and decimate the constitution are actually anti-nationalism.

He said the moot question in the country is about the nation and not about the religion. Referring to Delhi violence he said it is being deliberately abetted by the ruling party leaders. This could be easily assessed from the hate speeches made during the election campaign in Delhi. He pointed out at the provocative speeches by some of the ministers and said the violence is a result of it.

He said it is a deliberate attempt between those who want to protect the country and its constitution and those who want to build a theocratic state which is against the thesis of secularism.

Pointing out at the movement in the country against the CAA, Yechury said it is next to the Satyagraha movement led by Mahatma Gandhi against the British rule. He said the present movement is also similar to that and is completely non-violent on the same lines.

Yechury said that there are efforts to link CAA to one religion, whereas it will impact the poor and the marginalised sections the most. He said it will impact the larger sections of the people in the country.  NPR and NRC are going to start soon, but 13 states have said that they will not implement the NRC.
He pointed out that Kerala is the first state in the country to take a lead against the CAA and NPR and pointed out other states like Punjab, Rajasthan have also rejected the NPR. In such a scenario more than 50 per cent of the country will be out of the process; does that mean that they will become non-citizens, he said. He demanded that the Modi government should withdraw the CAA and stop the process of NPR immediately.

Sitaram Yechury also spoke about the economic distress in the country. He said factories are getting closed and the peasants are committing suicides, unemployment is at its peak and in such a background Modi is welcoming Trump to the country. He said Trump’s visit is to further eat up the Indian industries especially dairy and poultry. Taking a jibe he said Modi speaks a lot about Indian cows but somehow do not like the milk of Indian cows rather is promoting the US cows milk by signing such agreements.

Yechury said every decision that the government has taken since Modi 2.0 is anti-people and anti- national. Three CMs are in detention and slapped with Public Safety Act in Jammu and Kashmir, he said. The schools were closed and hospitals had no medicines after the abrogation of Article 370.