Govt Manipulating Data, Destroying Parliamentary Procedures: CPI(M)

New Delhi: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) hit out at the Centre on Thursday, alleging that it had plans for large-scale privatisation, was manipulating data, promoting crony capitalism and destroying parliamentary procedures.

It also demanded immediate Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir and warned that the Union home minister's announcement about the Centre's intention to annul Article 35 of the Constitution that dealt with Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy would further sever the bonds of unity between the people of the state and the rest of the country.

"The BJP government continues to refuse to initiate the long-promised political dialogue with all stakeholders. This is essential to restore normalcy and peace in the valley.

"The additional deployment by the government is officially stated to be a response to an increased threat perception of terrorist attacks. Unless the process of dialogue begins simultaneously, the situation cannot be normalised in J&K," a statement issued by the CPI(M) politburo said.

Economy in Doldrums

Taking on the government's economic policies, it said India's industrial core sector growth had dropped to a 44-month low of 0.2% in June 2019, compared with a 7.8% growth in June 2018.

The Left party alleged that the government had prepared a roadmap to lower its stake in all central public sector enterprises to 49% in three years and accused the BJP-led dispensation of "fudging" data to "conceal the truth".

"There is a glaring omission of at least Rs 1.7 lakh crore in the budget accounts. Revenues are shown inflated when the GST collections have registered a sharp drop from the announced targets," it said. 

Rushing of Bills

The statement further said the government was undermining all independent constitutional authorities rapidly.

It alleged that the government was pushing through important legislations in the very first Parliament session after the Lok Sabha polls held in April-May.

"Once the Parliament constitutes its standing and house committees, then all legislative business introduced in the Parliament is normally sent for scrutiny by the concerned committees. This practice has been done away with by this government. No committee has been constituted so far," the statement said.

It also highlighted the lacunas in the RTI (Amendment) Bill, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill and the "triple talaq" Bill.

Social Media Arrests

The CPI(M) also raised the issue of arrests in Uttar Pradesh for sharing "objectionable content" against Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on social media platforms and similar incidents in BJP-ruled states such as Assam, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Goa.

"This is creating a sense of fear in the social media, where authors, writers and individuals are being targeted under the draconian section 66A of the IT Act, despite the Supreme Court ruling against this section.

"The spread of hatred and intolerance is also targeting social activists and human rights activists in the name of either 'urban naxals' or 'tukde tukde gang' etc. The objective is to silence all expressions of dissent against this government, the RSS, the BJP and their leaders," the statement said.