Government should go when it starts fearing citizens: AAP
CPI-M JOINS PROTEST, BUT MARCH TO PRIME MINISTER’S HOUSE STOPPED MIDWAY
Targeting the Narendra Modi government, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) yesterday said that when a government starts fearing its own people, it is time for it to go.
The call came just hours before AAP’s march towards the prime minister’s residence for which the Delhi Police had denied permission.
AAP spokesman Saurabh Bhardwaj said that it “felt like everything has gone five years back” when the then Congressled United Progressive Alliance (UPA) “felt threatened and used its police force to stop Delhi citizens from protesting against it [during Lokpal agitation]”.
“I feel when a government starts fearing its own people, then it is time for that government to go,” Bhardwaj told journalists here.
Thousands of Aam Aadmi Party supporters were joined by flag waving Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) cadres at the heart of Delhi yesterday as protesters gathered to march to the Prime Minister’s Office.
CPM leader Sitaram Yechury announced he was lending support to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The protesters, however, were stopped midway at Parliament Street by the Delhi Police, who also maintained that they did not seek permission for a march. The protest was soon called off.
‘Hijacking mandate’
Kejriwal, who has been camping out at Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal’s house for a week, in protest against what he calls a “strike” by Delhi’s IAS officers, had repeatedly appealed to the prime minister to intervene and resolve the situation.
CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury accused the Modi government of using the governor’s office to destabilise the non-BJP state governments as well as to install BJP governments despite the saffron party not winning the mandate.
“Utilising the office of the Governors and Lt. Governors, the BJP central government is seeking to destabilise non-BJP democratically elected state governments. This is happening with the democratically elected governments in Delhi and in Puducherry,” he said.
Yechury said the office of the Governor was sought to be utilised “to hijack people’s mandate in Karnataka” which was thwarted.
He said the Governor’s office was used to “install BJP governments” even after they have “lost the elections”, like in Goa, Manipur and Meghalaya.
“The governor’s office has been misused in Bihar to allow the BJP to enter the government through the backdoor after losing the Assembly elections comprehensively,” said the leader of the Communist Party of India-Marxist. Yechury said such efforts were “destroying the already fragile Centre-state relations”, which is the backbone of the federal content of the Indian Constitution. “This must not be permitted.”
He said the Communists in India were the “first victims of such central authoritarian misuse of constitutional provisions” when the elected government in Kerala was “undemocratically” dismissed in 1959.