Modi govt "placing creed above country": Yechury

Charging the Narendra Modi-led government with "placing creed above the country", CPI (M) today said if this was not resisted with, India will become "rabidly intolerant" and would assume "fascistic proportions."
The architect of the Indian constitution had asked if Indians "will place country above creed or place creed above the country," since that could 'jeopardise' independence, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said while addressing a meeting here to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of B R Ambedkar.
"What are we seeing today? The BJP government today, it is forcing people to place their creed above the country. They are saying their religion, the Hindus and Hindus alone, are true nationalists in the country," he said.

"But placing the creed above the country, today you are once again jeopardising our country's independence. That is the warning Ambedkar gave, that is the warning we must heed to today," he said.
Yechury expressed concern over incidents like the lynching of a Muslim man in Dadri over "false allegations" of eating beef, besides the hanging of two persons in Jharkhand recently on charges of being cattle traders, and said such incidents happened "because they (government) are placing creed above country."
"With the government itself placing creed above the country, they are not only jeopardising the future but also our independence. If you want to protect cows, please by all means protect cows. But does cow protection means killing humans," he asked.

"Ambedkar's vision will remain only in history books and the real india will be an India of inequalities, rabidly intolerant and assuming fascistic proportions," he said.

He said that students of educational institutions like JNU and Hyderabad Central University besides others were questioning these and therefore the CPI (M) would support these "soldiers".
Yechury also slammed the Modi government on the economic front, saying agriculture, manufacturing growth and employment generation were in 'crisis' and took a swipe at the foreign trips of the Prime Minister.
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Yechury demanded that government extend the deadline for exchange of old notes and allow their legal transaction to help people tide over the problems they are currently facing.

Asked about the 'silence' of the RBI Governor over the issue, Yechury said that neither RBI nor the Finance Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office were in the loop.
"The discomfort of the Finance Minister in Parliament is in itself a telling blow that betrays the fact that he was not in a loop at all," he said.
"The RBI, the Finance Ministry and PMO - these are the three agencies which obviously should be in the loop. But what it appears is that not many people were taken into confidence before taking this step of demonetisation," he said.
Asked about the conglomerate of banks led by HSBC saying demonetisation would not affect the economy, he said people have the right to give an absurd logic in a democracy, but the truth would be known by interacting with people who are facing hardships due to the currency crunch.

Yechury also alleged that the entire growth index has been changed to give higher projection of GDP figures.
"The growth figures also, all of us have said it and all of us know that the entire index have been changed in order to give higher projection of GDP figures. So I think it has already hit the Indian economy in a big way," he said.
To a query, he said since it was the Prime Minister who announced demonetisation, he should be the one to reply in Parliament, instead of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
"We are not asking the Rajya Sabha Chairman to call the Prime Minister. It is not the Finance Minister who made the announcement, but the Prime Minister. So he is answerable. It is as simple as that," he said.

On differences between the opposition parties on the rollback of demonetisation, Yechury said his party was not against demonetisation, but concerned about people's problems.
"I am for nullification of even three per cent stock of the black money, but my concern is people's problems. Please tackle that," he said.