BJP Stand: Challenge to Secularism & National Unity

Date: 
Saturday, April 13, 2002

Press Statement

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement:

BJP Stand: Challenge to Secularism & National Unity

The decision of the BJP leadership not to remove Narendra Modi from the Chief Ministership and instead go for dissolution of the assembly and fresh polls with Modi at the helm, is a clear signal that the BJP will push ahead with the disruptive communal agenda of the Hindutva forces.

At a time when the whole country is exercised about the blatantly communal stance of Narendra Modi and his unconstitutional behaviour, the BJP has asked him to continue as the Chief Minister and lead the Party to face the elections. To hold elections in Gujarat with lakhs of Muslim minorities terrorised, uprooted and unable to live as normal citizens and to make the recent largescale violence as the plank for the elections is the height of cynicism and immorality.

The Prime Minister has himself in a public speech endorsed the stance of Modi and his cohorts in Gujarat. He has shockingly rationalised the worst mass killings since partition by citing the Godhra incident as the main cause.

The line adopted by the BJP on Gujarat is a big challenge for the country and for all right-thinking citizens. There can be no question of accepting the BJP stand that Narendra Modi will continue as Chief Minister even if elections are to be held. A man who has shamed the country and trampled upon the Constitution cannot be allowed to hold the post of Chief Minister any more.

The Telugu Desam which is a major supporter of the Vajpayee government and those parties in the NDA which have demanded the removal of Narendra Modi must realise the dangerous stance adopted by the BJP. Both the Prime Minister and the BJP have not left even a fig leaf to talk about the NDA agenda.

The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) appeals to all democratic and secular forces to come together and oppose the pernicious stand harmful to national unity, taken by the BJP at its Goa meeting. The movement for the ouster of Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister should be stepped up more vigorously.