CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Prakash Karat on Monday slammed the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for repeatedly accusing governments in Opposition-ruled 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 bribery-cum-extortion 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 corrupt. They’re doing it in all Opposition-ruled 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 level playing 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.
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.
