CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury addressing an online public meeting on September 1, organised by the Telangana state committee of the Party, said that the inefficiency of the government and its policies are helping the corporates and capitalists to amass wealth during the pandemic while all the main sectors have been thrown into crisis.

The meeting was organised to discuss the effects of the state and central government policies on the people. Yechury said that Atma Nirbhar (self reliant) policy of the central government has led to Atma Samarpan (self surrender). He said that even a capitalist country like Spain took over private hospitals in their country to fight the Covid-19 virus. But the governments in our country, excluding Kerala, are not in a position to control the private hospitals.

He said that during the Covid crisis, the significance of socialism has caught the interest of the people but the Modi government is trying to bring a government with facist ideology. He said that the police is arresting only Muslims in connection with the Delhi riots and seems to openly act like an anti-Muslim establishment. He reminded that during the freedom struggle, people of all faiths had fought together against the colonialists and for this reason, a secular constitution was framed.

He raised the issue of increasing attacks on the dalits in the country and said that the people must fight for social justice, when attacks against dalits and tribals are taking place. The CPI(M) Party organisers, leaders and sympathisers should fight against the right wing and communal  forces, he said.

Yechury said that a conspiracy is being hatched to replace the Indian constitution that stands for secularism and democracy with that of one with the RSS policies to make this country into a theocratic State (Hindu Rashtra). Attacks on federalism, social justice and economic independence are happening at a never before pace and only with the association of people and peoples movement can the constitution be saved and this responsibility lies with the members of the CPI(M), he said.

B V Raghavulu, Polit Bureau member, questioned as to how Anil Ambani had managed to earn trillions when the world economy has drastically slowed down during the pandemic. He said that the BJP-RSS is conspiring to attack the Left parties in the country and without massive public support it would be difficult to resist the attacks.

Raghavulu welcomed the Telangana government for conducting online classes during the Covid crisis. He however questioned as to how the marginalised sections are going to get computers and technical knowhow to avail these facilities. He demanded that like in Kerala, students from weaker sections be provided with computers and technology.

He criticised both the central and state governments for failing to control the spread of coronavirus infection and even after five months of lockdown, the number of positive cases is only increasing and more people are suffering everyday.

CPI(M) state secretary Tammineni Veerabhadram who presided over the meeting said that K Chandrashekara Rao, the chief minister, speaks with rhyme and in Telangana dialect in public speeches but acts differently when dealing with people’s issues. He flayed the government for allocating only Rs 100 crores for Covid-19 control in the state.

Veerabhadram criticised the state government for completely failing to prevent the private hospitals from collecting huge fees from Covid patients. He called on Party workers to fight, with  huge protests involving people and only that will  put pressure on the governments to respond. He also demanded a scheme to help handloom workers.

State secretariat member, T Jyothi said that the first culprit in the failure of containing Covid pandemic is Modi and second one is KCR.  She said that in other countries people were saved by offering cash transfers, but she regretted that this was not done in our country. Primary health is completely absent for non-covid cases and women are the main sufferers, she pointed out.

The online public meeting is unique. To make it successful, the social media and network groups at the state, district and mandal levels have toiled for 15 days, using different types of apps and videos. This meeting was viewed by lakhs of viewers. Through the CPI(M) facebook pages, the link was shared 30,000 times and it had reached seven lakh people. This effort was appreciated by B V Raghavulu and Veerabhadram.