‘Post Jantar Mantar, BJP is on backfoot’: CPI-M General Secretary M.A. Baby
New Delhi: Communist Party of India‑Marxist (CPI‑M) General Secretary, M.A. Baby, on Friday asserted that after the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP)-led Jantar Mantar protest culminated in a “symbolic victory” with the resignation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on the “backfoot”.
According to him, a new political situation has emerged in the country, which will be “good for secularism and democracy”.
Speaking to reporters before attending a CPI-M Politburo meeting, Baby said: “BJP has suffered a setback because of Jantar Mantar students’ struggle victory. One of the agreements was that all the fabricated cases on peacefully agitating students will be withdrawn. But then the government backed out from that offer.”
“Then CJP and other student organisations said they would agitate against that, on September 5 and will have a demonstration. Then immediately, the government had to rush to Supreme Court and requested Supreme Court to take a decision to withdraw all cases,” he said.
The CJP later called off its September 5 agitation after the apex court directed the squashing of FIRs lodged against student protesters in various states.
“So, BJP is on the backfoot,” Baby remarked. He also referred to the party’s loss in Bihar’s Bankipur, which was earlier represented by BJP chief Nitin Nabin.
He further said: “People are deserting BJP and Congress, fascist tactics of RSS are not going to work. Students and youth declared that they are fearless…so a new political situation has emerged in the country.”
“The new political situation would be good for secularism and democracy,” he stated.
Regarding India’s GDP growth of 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter, the CPI-M leader referred to it as “fudged accounting”.
“The GDP growth rate, the way it is being projected, that has been exposed by former Finance Secretary himself. Economists are coming out. People like Raghuram Rajan have come out and exposed the hollowness of the fudged accounts,” he said.
Baby claimed: “There is a statement that you can do anything with statistics. How you use statistics, that’s the most important thing. So, the so-called amazing growth rate that is being shown through the GDP statistics, it is fudged, you know, accounting.”
Meanwhile, he said that the CPI-M Politburo meets regularly to take stock and to analyse the overall political situation.
“Last Parliament session was a washout. Issues which the Opposition wanted to raise, the ruling party was unwilling to discuss them. Now, we hear that there would be a possibility of a special session with certain agenda in the ruling party’s mind. So, we will take stock of the overall situation and prepare ourselves to face the political developments that may evolve in the coming days,” he mentioned.