Police is destructing public property during CAA protests: Sitaram Yechury

Hitting out at the BJP-led Centre over the National Population Register (NPR), Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said that the government is "contradicting its stance on the same". While talking to ETV Bharat, Yechury said that at least 13 chief ministers have rejected NRC and CAA and have said that it will not be implemented in their states.

New Delhi:The Left parties on Thursday announced a seven-day nationwide protest from January 1 to 7 and a general strike on January 8 against the Citizenship Amendment Act, the National Population Register and the National Register of Citizens.

In a joint statement, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation, the All India Forward Bloc and the Revolutionary Socialist Party said the protest programme was announced in solidarity with the trade unions, which have also called a general strike on January 8.

While talking to ETV Bharat, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said, "At least 13 chief ministers have rejected NRC and CAA and have said that it will not be implemented in their states."

He further said that students are continuously protesting against the Citizenship Act, which is left unheard by the Modi government. The government should think about why people are protesting.

Hitting out at the BJP-led Centre over the National Population Register (NPR), Yechury said, "There are many parties of NDA who have publicly expressed their disagreement on NPR.

On asking about the police action against students during the protest, he said that he condemned the police action on protesting students of the JNU, AMU, Jamia, saying it was not the right way to deal with democratic protests.

He said, "More than 50 universities are against the Act and are protesting against it. Police are brutally attacking those students as seen in the videos and are destructing public properties."

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In this context, Yechury said, "Earlier, the court after an investigation had bailed the accused activists and case was withdrawn. This was right as those attacked were arrested and so had to be bailed out as they were the victims of violence. "

Massive violence had hit Koregaon Bhima in Pune district on January 1, 2018. The police have lodged cases against Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote besides others.