Largest possible secular front needed to dethrone BJP: Yechury

Srinagar: CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said that the largest front of secular forces is needed to isolate and defeat BJP in upcoming election. He said that thus the party could be stopped from using government to destroy the Constitution, The Indian Express reported.

Yechury said that India must be facing the worst level of unemployment in history, and people are facing economic attacks such as hunger, inflation etc. India is falling among all the indices around the world, such as global hunger index, freedom index, press freedom index etc., he said. Addressing a party state conference in Srinagar, he said that India is now an electoral autocracy rather than a democracy.

Regarding the situation in Kashmir, Yechury said that petitions challenging abrogation of Article 370 and 35A remain pending in Supreme Court is regrettable. The more the SC takes time to hear these petitions, the more the Centre gets time to implement the J&K Reorganisation Act, he said.

He said that till the validity of abrogation of Article 370 is determined by the court, such laws should be put on hold, or the change would become irreversible. If the court hears the matter after that, it would be difficult to repeal those changes, and therefore the court must listen to the issue as early as possible. He reiterated that J&K is India's part, but the promises that were made when the state acceded to India must be kept.

The CPM chief alleged that there had been a petition against electoral bonds in the SC for the last three years, which needs to be heard. The BJP had accumulated billions of rupees through electoral bonds and are winning elections using it, destroying the level playing field for polls.

The party state conference adopted a resolution, which included the difficulties the population faces to resolve people's issues and fight for their constitutional rights.