'CPI(M) planning a secular platform against communal forces'

The CPI(M) is making efforts to form a secular platform at the national level to take on communal forces, party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said today.
"We are planning to bring together all the secular forces, not merely political parties, for a nationwide anti- communalism programme," he told reporters here.
The situation in the country is "worsening by the day" with cow vigilantes and moral policing squads going berserk, Yechury claimed.
He also claimed that these "private armies" are growing in alarming proportions and should be outlawed.
The CPI(M) leader said these private armies have to be stopped and sought the support of other forces.

"I think we will be able to announce a nationwide programme," he said.

The CPI(M) leader said it cannot be said at this juncture on the possible shape the proposed secular platform would take by the time of 2019 general elections.
A sort of resistance will have to be built against entire communalism that is going on through this process, Yechury said.
"As far as our party is concerned, it's a non-Congress, secular parties, forces, not only parties, to take on this communal challenge," he said.
Hindu communalism and Muslim fundamentalism were two sides of the same coin and they feed on each other, he alleged.

Alleging that the NDA government has been a failure on all fronts, he wondered why the BJP is celebrating completion of three years of its tenure.
"Every promise is bittered, why this celebration?" he said.
Asked about the Left not doing well in the West Bengal local body elections, he claimed that it was a "murder of democracy" in the state.
"It was democracy the Trinamool Congress style, It was a murder of democracy," Yechury said.
Alleging that the RSS indulged in attacks against left cadres in Kerala, he claimed but the Sangh parivar went to town saying it was the left that unleashed a terror in the southern state.

Yechury, whose term in the Rajya Sabha is coming to an end shortly, said he cannot and does not want to violate the party's principle that no partyman should have more than two terms.