Sitaram Yechuri: Narendra Modi is looting the country

Narendra Modi. Pic/AFP

Launching a sharp attack on the Prime Minister, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechuri on Sunday claimed that Narendra Modi, fugutive diamantaire Nirav Modi and former IPL Chairman Lalit Modi were looting the country. The Left leader said people never knew that the country had so many Modis, but what is common among them is that "all were looting".

Yechury -- re-elected the Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary -- said the loot increased after the Modi government came to power in May 2014. He said that though Modi had promised to waive loans of farmers, he waived loans of about Rs 3 lakh crore of big investors and industrialists.

"People's money kept in banks was looted. Those who did it escaped from the country and the government is not able to bring them back," he said. Yechury was addressing a public meeting organised by the CPI-M on Sunday evening to mark the end of five-day party national conclave.

Yechury compared Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah to epic Mahabharata's 'Duryodhana' and 'Dushasana'. The Marxist leader said there were 100 Kaurava brothers in Mahabharat but most people know of only two -- Duryodhana and Dushasana. "Similarly, people know only two in BJP -- Narendra Modi and Amit Shah," he remarked.

Yechury vowed to defeat the BJP-RSS combine and said the CPI-M was determined to defeat the communal forces and restore harmony in the country. Voicing concern over increasing sexual assaults on children, he alleged that all those involved belonged to the BJP and RSS and no action was taken against them. "Instead of registering cases against them, victims are being booked. The women and children never faced this grave threat before this government came to power," he said.

On the third alternative proposed by Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao against both the BJP and the Congress, Yechury said the CPI-M would take a decision after seeing its policies. Revealing that the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief spoke to him a few days ago about the proposed front, Yechury said a front for the sake of power would be of no help.

He recalled that an effort was made for the third alternative 20 years ago, leading to the formation of United Front government in 1996. Yechury said that while their priority was to defeat the communal forces and appropriate strategy would be adopted at the time of 2019 general elections, the electoral alliances alone will not help. He underlined the need to build a mass movement to achieve the goal.

He pointed out that during Telangana's armed struggle, "the Communists protected 5,000 villages for three years from Nizam's 'razakars', the Congress government and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel's Army". Referring to the march of hundreds of red-shirt volunteers at the public meeting, he said such 'people's army' alone could give a befitting reply to the communalists.

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