BJP guilty of attacks on our cadres: CPM

GUWAHATI: The two-day meeting of the central committee of Communist Party of India (Marxist) in New Delhi which ended on Friday, accused RSS and BJP of carrying out 'unabated' violence against its cadres in Tripura after the state election last month. The committee added that its cadres have also been slapped with false cases.
The committee appealed to the authorities in the northeastern border state to uphold the law of the land and check the harassment.

In a statement, CPM stated, "The post-poll violence in Tripura by RSS/BJP continues unabated against CPM and the Left Front. Nearly a thousand Left cadres have been physically targeted, 1,699 houses have been ransacked and looted, over 450 shops burned, over 800 party offices attacked, looted and some burned down. Nearly 134 offices of Left mass organisations have been captured and occupied by BJP..."

It added, "The central committee expressed its solidarity with the Tripura unit and the comrades heroically facing these attacks and called for a nationwide solidarity against the RSS/BJP attacks on CPM and Left supporters in the state. The central committee called upon the concerned authorities to uphold the law of the land instead of harassing and intimidating Left supporters."

The committee also discussed the political situation in Karnataka where elections to the state assembly have just been announced and approved the list of CPM candidates who would be contesting.

On the CBSE question paper leak, the committee stated that under BJP rule, various scams connected with exams have been intermittently exposed. "After the Vyapam and SSC scam, now another scam involving the future of lakhs of students who appeared for Class X & XII of CBSE exams this year has come to light. The CBSE has admitted to the leak. This has affected the future of 16.38 lakh students of Class X and 8 lakh students of Class XII," the committee stated.

"The CBSE was headless for nearly two years. It is only in September 2017 that a CEO from Gujarat was appointed to this important body. All those responsible for causing distress to these students need to be identified and punished," the committee stated.

On the recent exposure of the use of data from social networking platforms such as Facebook to influence voters has exposed the vulnerability of democracy and an individual's privacy, the committee stated.

"The protection of privacy and data of individual citizens must be urgently undertaken through the promulgation of new laws. A legal structure has to be urgently created to protect the privacy of individuals which is a fundamental right in our country," it stated.