Jammu,(CNI) Senior CPI(M) leader MY Tarigami on Sunday appealed to secular parties in Jammu and Kashmir for a “courageous and united” struggle against the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections requested to get together.
Tarigami, a former legislator, claimed that efforts were being made to politicize the armed forces and said “such a thing is not good for the country”.
“We appeal to all secular parties, social groups and even some influential people in Jammu and Kashmir to join hands in a bold and united struggle to show the door to the BJP, which has taken away our constitutional and democratic rights and brought down the historic state,” he told reporters here.
Tarigami said a message needs to be sent that what the BJP did “is not acceptable to us.”
“We have to overcome our differences and unite and make the BJP pay for its actions.
The BJP has not done justice to us and deserves no confidence,” CPI (M) said. ) said the leader, the secular opposition parties must understand that this is an “existential fight to save democracy”.
Asking people to take a cue from the ongoing protest in Ladakh where both Leh and Kargil districts came on the same page for their four-point demands, including statehood and the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, he said that Jammu and The people of Kashmir division also need to raise a united voice in a democratic manner to protect their rights, future and identity.
Welcoming the formation of the opposition Alliance India Bloc despite wide diversity, political ambitions and ideological differences, Tarigami said that people’s unity can save the country from the misrule of the present system.
“The BJP is desperately trying to disable the opposition parties by brazenly using agencies like PED, CBI, IT and falsely implicating them in various cases. They are organizing defections in the opposition parties and are also indiscriminately arresting the chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of the opposition parties.
The CPI(M) leader said corruption was a major problem facing the country as the electoral bond scheme introduced by the BJP in 2017 was the country’s “biggest scam”.
The CPI(M) not only opposed the scheme but also knocked the door of the Supreme Court. We welcome his decision as it brought to light how agencies were used to arm companies to pay off money. We are on record saying that the scheme was meant to legalize corruption and we did not get any electoral bonds while the ruling party got thousands of crores of rupees,” he said, adding that the government has to explain where the money went.
Tarigami said the country is run by a democracy that talks about transparency, accountability, equality but “we have a party that is getting a large share of electoral bonds, which is weakening the electoral process because the opposition parties received very little money”.
The CPI(M) leader also expressed concern over attempts to politicize the army for holding a seminar on the “very sensitive and contentious issue of Uniform Civil Code”.
The seminar in Srinagar on March 26 was canceled by the army after facing backlash from political parties. However, the Army said it had nothing to do with the subject of the seminar and was only providing administrative support to its organizers.
“The attempt to hold a seminar on a very sensitive and controversial issue of the Uniform Civil Code is highly regrettable.
The Army should not be politicized and its professionalism and secular ethics should not be undermined,” Tarigami said.
He said that any attempt to politicize the army would be debilitating and would adversely affect the professionalism and unity among its ranks.(CNI)
