CPI(M) will mobilise Opposition for EC reforms, says Sitaram Yechury

CPI(M) General-Secretary Sitaram Yechury said the party will mobilise the Opposition to ensure that Election Commissioners are appointed by a collegium-led by the President rather than by the government.

He said the recent Lok Sabha elections underlined the need for far reaching electoral reforms, adding the Election Commission could not implement its assurance to conduct “free and fair polls”.

“When the Right goes strong, the Left has to go strong and that will be the new polarisation in the country. Soft Hindutva is not the answer to hardcore Hindutva and that is why Left is the only option,” Yechury argued.

The CPI(M) will mobilise all willing sections of the political spectrum to ensure that election commissioners are appointed by a collegium-led by the President, he said. “We will mobilise the opposition parties and seek to urgently reform the Election Commission so that it can play an impartial role,” he said.

The decision was taken in the preliminary review of the Lok Sabha elections in which the Left party identified four reasons of BJP’s victory.

“The BJP won this decisive victory on the basis of unprecedented money power and full support of international and domestic corporates. Huge amounts were transferred to the BJP through electoral bonds,” Yechury said. He said to address this challenge, the party will take the lead in rallying maximum sections of people in struggles against such “economic assaults”.

The Left leader said consolidation of the Hindutva communal polarisation will lead to greater attacks on rights of religious and linguistic minorities, worsening their security concerns and livelihood. He noted that the penetration of RSS in all constitutional authorities, which happened during the last five years, is bound to further intensify.

“This will lead to undermining such constitutional authorities in order to facilitate the transformation of the Constitutional Republic into the ideological project of the RSS — Hindutva Rashtra,” he said.

The CPI(M) General-Secretary said focus of the BJP’s victory was based on the need to establish a ‘security’ state in India. “The assaults by private armies under one pretext or the other against Dalits and religious minorities will intensify. The rights of working people and religious, linguistic minorities will come under attack leading up to witch-hunting.

“The CPI(M) will take the lead in mobilising the broadest segment of our people who cherish the democratic rights and civil liberties to meet these challenges squarely,” he added.

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