‘BJP’s new culture: whoever may win polls, it will form government’

Kozhikode

CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury has alleged that the BJP is creating a new culture in the country that whoever may win the elections, the party will form the government. He was here on Saturday to open a seminar on ‘Challenges to the Indian Constitution’.

Mr. Yechury said the way the constitutional order was being destroyed could be understood by the manner in which the BJP was operating. “First, they approach the Opposition leaders by offering money and allurements. If they do not accept the offer, then huge amounts of money are offered to engineer defections. If they don’t accept it either, then the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation are let loose on them, to harass them,” he said. “Even if this does not make them move towards the BJP, then they are simply arrested and put in jail without charges being formed. This way they are creating a new culture in the country that whoever may win the elections, the BJP will form the government,” Mr. Yechury alleged.

The CPI(M) leader said even after the BJP lost the elections earlier in Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and in a north-eastern States, they managed to form governments by buying over or threatening intimidating or arresting Opposition legislators.

Mr. Yechury said that though the BJP lost the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections to the Congress and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to the Aam Aadmi Party recently, the propaganda going on was that “very soon you would have a BJP Mayor in Delhi and BJP Chief Minister in Himachal Pradesh. Opposition parties are being forced to protect their members from being poached by the BJP and being enticed to distort democracy,” he pointed out.

Mr. Yechury also alleged that along with the destruction of the Constitution, institutions that were set up to uphold and safeguard it were being destroyed too. “The first of such institutions that are being undermined severely is Parliament. In the ongoing [winter] session, the government wants to adopt 25 Bills in 51 days.... All those who are opposed to the government in Parliament are not allowed to raise questions. Parliament has been reduced to an institution where the tyranny of majority is being exercised without any discussion,” he added.