Balakrishna Shetty, secretary of the district unit of Communist Party of India (Marxist), said on Thursday that both secularism and democracy were under threat under the Narendra Modi government in the country.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Shetty said that there was an increase in cases of cow vigilantism and moral policing in the country over the last five years.

Institutions of higher learning had been either “saffronised” or their powers had been curbed. “Freedom of expression in the country has been curbed in the name of national security,” he said.

The Union government had failed to tackle unemployment. The merger of Vijaya Bank, which originated in Mangaluru, with Bank of Baroda was a retrograde step, he said. He added that the rights of farmers and workers had been crushed. While the Union government was reluctant to waive loans of the farmers, it had no qualms in waiving the loan of the corporate sector.

The Rafale scam had showed that the Union government was least bothered about transparency, he claimed. It even tried to curb the freedom of press by attacking a small section of the media who had dared to expose the corruption and bending of rules in the Rafale scam. “The country is now under an unannounced Emergency,” he said.

The CPI(M) would support the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition candidates such as Pramod Madhwaraj in Udupi-Chikkamagaluru parliamentary constituency and Madhu Bangarappa in Shivamogga parliamentary constituency.