Students from IIT-Roorkee, JNU Leading CPI’s Social Media War Room

The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Saturday released its election manifesto calling for a change of government at the centre. The party has claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party led government at the centre has proven to be a disaster for the country. The party is contesting in at least 30 seats across the country in the coming election. Reports ETV Bharat’s Gautam Debroy.

New Delhi: Being aware of the impact of social media in election campaigns, the Communist Party of India (CPI) has involved students from IIT (Roorkee), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) to lead its social media team.

The party has also set up a war room as a coordinating office at its headquarter at Ajay Bhawan in New Delhi which is monitoring the entire social media activities.

“Yes, we have asked our state branches in Kerala, Telangana and Tamil Nadu to make maximum use of social media,” said Prof Dinesh C Varshney, national council member of CPI to ETV Bharat.

The party which is contesting in at least 30 seats across India, on Saturday, has released its election manifesto with a call to dethrone the BJP.

“The manifesto calls for a change of government at the centre as the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party led government at the Union has proven to be a disaster for the country,” said CPI general secretary D Raja while releasing the 28-pages manifesto.

He said that BJP’s rule has resulted in unprecedented concentration of wealth at the top while the poor is pushed to destitution. “Controlled by the Hindutva ideology of the RSS, BJP is targeting the core values of our Constitution like secularism, socialism, federalism, liberty, equality and fraternity. BJP’s continuation in power would mean increased misery for the people of our country and a death knell for our Constitution and the ideals enshrined in it,” said Raja.

Asserting that the 2024 election is very crucial for the country, Raja said, “A pro-people government with an agenda to address the crisis people are facing is necessary. We appeal to the electorate to exercise their right to vote for a secular, democratic, pro-people alternative, for strengthening the Left in the 18th Lok Sabha.”

Underlining the issues his party will carry forward during the election campaign, Raja said that CPI will introduce measures to address growing inequality and expand the resource base of our country with taxation measures like wealth tax, inheritance tax, and increased corporate tax to keep the nature of our economy more equal.

Reiterating that CPI will work for the abolishment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Raja said that his party will continue its struggle for full statehood to Puducherry and NCT of Delhi.

“CPI will continue its struggle for complete statehood to be restored to Jammu & Kashmir along with special status and assembly election,” Raja stated.

He claimed that CPI will scrap all irrational and communal changes brought by the BJP in NCERT and other text books. “New Education Policy (NEP) will be scrapped and replaced with a pro-people model of education for the entire country," he said.

“NITI Aayog will be dismantled and the planning commission will be reinstated to formulate scientific policies for our country. CPI will strive to remove executive interference in the appointments of CEC and ECs to ensure the independence of the Election Commission of India,” Raja said.

The CPI leader further said that his party will mobilise public opinion for comprehensive electoral reforms, including State funding of elections as recommended by the Indrajit Gupta Committee and for proportional representation system.

“The CPI aims to bring central investigative agencies like ED, CBI under the purview of Parliament to ensure impartiality in their probe and to avoid interference and abuse by the executive,” he said.

Raja said that the Women’s Reservation Act will be implemented immediately removing the delimitation clauses. “We will ensure 50 percent reservation for women at all levels of Panchayat Raj institutions,” said Raja.

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