PM should fulfil his promise about restoration of statehood to J&K: CPI-M leader Karat

Jammu, Feb 17 (PTI) Asking Prime Minister Narendra Modi to fulfil his promise of restoring statehood to Jammu and Kashmir, CPI(M) polit bureau coordinator Prakash Karat on Monday lashed out at the BJP-led Centre for its alleged attacks on the democratic and federal structure of the country.

Karat made the remarks while addressing the 13th 2-day state conference of party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit here.

“Your fight for restoration of statehood is not just your fight but the fight of the whole nation. It is also the fight to safeguard democracy, Constitution, federal structure and counter the anti-people policies of the Modi-led government,” he said.

He said a major injustice was done with the people of J&K when the erstwhile state was bifurcated to two Union territories and its special status was revoked on August 5, 2019.

“The main issue is when the statehood to J&K is restored. The promise made by the prime minister should be fulfilled immediately,” the CPI(M) leader said, adding “the happening of 2019 in J&K was the biggest assault on the Constitution, democracy and federal structure of the country”.

He said his party considers that downgrading J&K was not only taking away the rights of the people of J&K but an attack against the democratic setup of the country.

“We were aware that it will not be restricted to J&K. If democracy is finished in J&K, the same thing will happen in the rest of the country. The same thing is happening in rest of the country over the last five years,” he said.

He claimed that his home state Kerala is witnessing a tussle between the governor and the CPI(M)-led elected government and same thing is also happening in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and other state where non-BJP parties are in power.

He alleged that the central government is drying up funds for elected governments in non-BJP-ruled states which have no power to decide on the development projects.

“This all is happening at the behest of the Centre and all this is happening through the office of governor. In Kerala, the government cannot even decide the appointment of the vice chancellor of a university,” Karat said.

Referring to J&K, he said the assembly elections were held after 10 years but the chief minister and his cabinet colleagues have no powers which were handed over to the lieutenant governor through certain amendments prior to the last year polls.

He said the people should be given their basic rights and decide about their future themselves.

“We have been hearing that the statehood will be restored at an appropriate time. When this appropriate time will come,” he said, pushing for restoring full statehood to J&K.

He alleged that the BJP does not want democracy and federalism in the country as it is backed by the RSS which wants “Hindu Rashtra” as is evident from Jana Sangh’s opposition to the framing and adoption of the Constitution over 75 years ago.

“Over the past 10 years, we are seeing continuous attacks on secularism and democracy and implementation of black laws, detention of people under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, arrest of opposition leaders – first time chief ministers of Delhi and Jharkhand were jailed just before Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

The CPI(M) leader alleged that the majority of the media are also under control of the BJP and those who are trying to remain neutral are suppressed and jailed.

The unemployment is on rise, farmers are facing the worst of the situation and labourers are also suffering.

“Four labour codes are going to be implemented on March 31. We have to stand up and fight against these codes which are anti-labour. We stand with the people and protest the anti-people policies of the government and its attack on democracy, secularism, and federalism,” he said, adding a nationwide general strike will be called against the labour codes.

He said the two-day state conference, which is part of the national level conference scheduled in Tamil Nadu in the first week of April, will formulate a programme to safeguard the rights of the people.