New Delhi, Nov 5 (PTI) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah of making “communal” remarks in poll-bound Jharkhand and urged the Election Commission to take action against them.
The Left party also raised concerns over the state of MGNREGS and the shortage of fertilisers in the country.
It made the remarks in a statement it issued after a meeting of its Central Committee, which concluded on Tuesday.
“The utterly communal speeches being made by BJP leaders led by the Prime Minister and Home Minister in the Jharkhand election campaign are a clear violation of the model code of conduct as well as the guidelines issued by the EC to all political parties,” CPI(M) said in a statement.
“The Prime Minister in his speeches has directly targeted the Muslim community, vilifying members of the community as ‘ghuspethias’. He has gone so far in his communal and hate-filled speeches as to make the charge that ‘those people are taking away your (adivasis’) bread and your daughters,'” it said.
CPI(M) called it an attempt to drive a wedge between communities to garner votes and said it was condemnable that the EC did not take suo moto notice of such speeches.
“It is as if the Prime Minister and Home Minister who have made similar speeches are above the law. We demand that notice be issued to the Prime Minister, the Home Minister as well as other BJP leaders making communal speeches. These include the Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma and Union Minister Shivraj Chauhan,” it said.
In Jharkhand, in the absence of any initiative from the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha which is leading the INDIA bloc for discussions with the CPI(M), the party has decided to fight nine seats, which include five ST seats and one SC seat.
On other seats, the party will support the candidate best placed to defeat the BJP and its allies, it said.
The Left party also said the poor under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme were being harassed in the name of digitalisation.
“There is an all-out attack on the rights of the rural poor as seen in the dreadful plight of MNREGA workers. A detailed recent study has shown that in the last two years, as many as eight crore registered workers were deregistered and denied benefits of work in violation of the law,” it said.
The party demanded the Centre implement a parliamentary standing committee’s recommendation of increasing the number of work days to at least 150 days a year and also bring a hike in budgetary allocations.
It also said there is a fertiliser shortage in the country and that farmers are being forced to pay above government fixed rates. PTI AO AO VN VN
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