This is Modi's emergency: Yechury on police action

New Delhi: CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Monday condemned the police action on protesting students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, saying it was not the right way to deal with democratic protests.

"This is Modi's emergency. The number of police personnel present at the spot of the protest is higher than what we saw during emergency," Yechury said during a press briefing here. "This is not the right way to deal with democratic protests. The Modi government is trying to provoke the students."

Yechury, who was the JNU students' union president during Emergency, said peaceful demonstration was a democratic right in a democratic society. He added that beating up students shows the "use of extreme authoritarianism on the part of the government".

Yechury said during his student days, marches were taken till the Parliament without any violence.