Will approach all opposition parties for joint fight against BJP: Yechury

CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said all opposition parties would be approached to fight the BJP jointly in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

"We need a policy not a politician. We will ask all opposition parties to come together on the basis of alternative social and economic policies," he said, responding to queries about a possible coalition of non-BJP, non-NDA parties to jointly fight the BJP.

Yechury was speaking to the media after he wrote a letter to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seeking a rollback of the idea of electoral bonds, calling it a "regressive" move that would legalise money laundering.

The CPI-M leader also condemned Delhi Police for not allowing Dalit leader and Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani to hold a march in Delhi, which he said was reflection of the BJP government's "undemocratic nature".

"It is anti-Dalit posturing," Yechury said, adding there would be larger people's struggle in the coming days against high malnutrition rate, dip in the country's GDP rate and rise in unemployment.

He said discontent related to governance and economy was being diverted to communal polarisation by the BJP.

Yechury also targeted the government over India's foreign policy that he said had shifted in "a very big way" and the country was seen as "supplicant of US' global strategic interest".

"It is distinct and vivid shift towards a pro-US foreign policy, which is very detrimental to India's interest. It is happening with climate change, WTO and other international treaties," he said.

--IANS

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