Fight three-pronged challenge posed by BJP, says Yechury

The 'trimurti' of 'neo-liberal' economic policies, communal polarisation and undermining of democratic institutions, pursued by the BJP government, should not be allowed to turn into a 'trishul', the CPI(M) said today.
"The challenge before us is to stop this 'trimurti' (triad) from converting into a 'trishul' (trident) which will rupture the interests of the people," CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury told a press conference here.
On how to check this trend, he said, "We are in talks with other Left parties, while mass organisations like Kisan Sabha and trade unions are independently working out agitational programmes on these issues."
Briefing reporters on the deliberations of the two-day Polit Bureau meeting, Yechury said the latest 21st Party Congress had noted the three trends being pursued by the BJP government.

These are the "aggressive pursuit" of the neo-liberal economic reforms, "relentless onslaughts" on the secular- democratic foundations of the country by "sharpening communal polarisation" and the "movement towards an authoritarian rule through the erosion of democratic institutions".
These trends "are all getting aggravated," Yechury said, adding that a united opposition has been able to check the BJP plans in Parliament.

The BJP government "is backtracking on many issues that it had opposed during the UPA government like FDI in retail trade. It's backtracking on the Land Acquisition Bill is a classic case," he said.
It was "only due to the combined opposition in the Rajya Sabha" that the government was forced to send this (Land) Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

The way the Modi government was "undermining parliamentary democracy is unprecedented. It has passed nearly 50 legislations (over 90 per cent) in the Lok Sabha without allowing parliamentary scrutiny by referring them to the respective parliamentary Standing Committees, during the course its first year in office," he said.
"It is only due to the strength of the combined opposition parties that it was forced to refer seven Bills it passed in the Lok Sabha using its 'tyranny of majority', to Select Committees in the Rajya Sabha," Yechury said.