Left to hold nationwide protests next week

Accusing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of making “false allegations” over the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) row, Left parties on Friday announced that they would hold nationwide protests next week against the alleged “anti-national” tag being given to them by Hindutva forces.

After a meeting of six Left parties in the national Capital on Friday, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the protests will be held between February 23 and 25.

He said a delegation comprising leaders of Left parties and MPs from Janata Dal-United (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will call on President Pranab Mukherjee, seeking his intervention in the raging controversy even as he stressed that JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar must be released forthwith.

“On the basis of false allegations, the RSS-BJP have mounted an all-India attack against Indian people, targeting the Left. This anti-national label they want to give to all others except themselves is something completely unacceptable. So, Left parties have decided to hold an all-India protest campaign against what the RSS-BJP is doing under this government’s patronage,” Yechury said.

Targeting right-wing forces on the issue, he said those who “glorify” Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse as a national hero, are in “no position” to term Left leaders as “anti-national”. Referring to the decision that all central universities will fly the Tricolour atop a 207-feet tall mast on their campuses to signify a “strong India”, Yechury took a dig at the Centre, saying such “whipping of jingoism” will not earn it “credible” points on nationalism.

“The size of the Tricolour in our hearts and the comrades of the Left is much larger than any size this government may hoist in any university,” said Yechury, who was flanked by other Left leaders. Citing the alleged attack on CPI(M) head office and “threats” to him and CPI national secretary D Raja over their stand on the JNU row, he said Left leaders will meet the attack “politically and democratically”.

Meanwhile, a delegation of Left leaders, along with MPs of NCP, JD(U) and RJD met President Pranab Mukherjee and sought his intervention in the issue. Besides Yechury and Raja, the meeting was attended by CPI(M) leaders Prakash Karat and S Ramchandran Pillai, CPI general secretary S Sudhakar Reddy, CPI(ML)-Liberation's Swapan Mukherjee, RSP leader Abani Roy and AIFB general secretary Debabrata Biswas.