The Hindu (Thiruvananthapuram)
No levelplaying field for parties, Centre set on crushing Opposition, says Prakash Karat
Man who created electoral bond and instituted legalised political corruption in India has gall to call all Opposition parties corrupt, he says, referring to PM Modi. CPI(M) confident that BJP will fail to open account in State; strong Left intervention is
CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat on Monday slammed the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for repeatedly accusing governments in Oppositionruled States of being corrupt.
Mr. Karat said he was amazed that Mr. Modi “had the gall” to continue levelling corruption charges against Opposition parties after the revelations about the electoral bond scheme which had exposed it as the “biggest briberycumextortion racket being run officially, legally, by the ruling party.”
In Thiruvananthapuram to campaign for the LDF for the April 26 Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Karat was participating in the Leaders’ Meet organised by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ). “The man who created the electoral bond and instituted legalised political corruption in India has the gall to call all other Opposition parties in the country corrupt. They’re doing it in Oppositionruled States,” he said.
The 18th Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Karat said, would determine the future of democracy in India. The Modi government believes that there can be democracy without the Opposition and they are determined to crush the
Opposition. “Opposition parties are being attacked through their finances. It is a struggle for Opposition parties to face this election. There is no levelplaying field,” he said.
He also accused the Modi government of rousing religious feelings and passions against the Opposition parties ahead of the elections. “If the BJP and Mr. Modi were to come back to power, we can say goodbye to democracy in its present form, to secularism that we’ve had in this country under the Constitution and whatever federal features that we have in our Constitution,” he alleged.
‘2019 will not repeat’
Mr. Karat said the Left expected a “complete turnaround” in Kerala compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls when it lost heavily to the UDF. “2019 will not repeat this time. As far as Kerala is concerned, there is going to be a complete reversal,” he said. The CPI(M) is also confident that the BJP will fail to open an account in the State, he said. A “strong Left intervention” is needed in Parliament to reverse the damage caused by the Modi government, he said.
Responding to questions, Mr. Karat was critical of alleged omissions in the Congress election manifesto and Rahul Gandhi’s decision to contest from Wayanad. Mr. Gandhi’s candidature does not send across a good signal, given that the battle is against the BJP at the national level, he said. “We made the same criticism in 2019 also. We could not understand the logic and the political necessity of contesting in a seat in Kerala where your main opponent is LDF,” he said.
The Congress also needs to explain the “significant absences” in its election manifesto, Mr. Karat said, referring to the allegations that the document was silent on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
Two more roads in the city developed under the Smart City Mission were reopened to traffic on Monday. These include the first reach of the Attakulangara Killipalam road and the Thycaud houseLower Thampanoor road (MG Radhakrishnan road).
The AttakulangaraKillipalam road was reopened by City Police Commissioner C.H. Nagaraju at a function held at Killipalam and the M.G. Radhakrishnan road was opened to traffic by the Principal of Model High School, Thycaud, at the Model High School junction. With the model code of conduct in place, ministers stayed away from the functions.
Three more roads
The first layer of road tarring has been completed and the cables laid through underground ducts. An official pressnote issued here said work on the redevelopment of three more roads under the Smart City project had been expedited and they would be opened to traffic soon.