Left Parties Demand Shah’s Resignation Over Ambedkar Remarks

The meeting was attended by coordinator of the CPI(M) Politburo Prakash Karat, CPI general secretary D Raja, CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, RSP general secretary Manoj Bhattacharya, and AIFB general secretary G Devarajan. The parties also decided to step-up Left intervention on political and people's issues.

During the meeting held on Sunday, the Left leaders noted that there was widespread anger and protests around the country over Shah's remarks on Ambedkar in the Rajya Sabha. "However, neither Amit Shah nor Prime Minister Narendra Modi are willing to own up the responsibility and take remedial action," the parties said.

"The Left parties, therefore, decided to continue with the ongoing protests and have decided to jointly organise a protest day on December 30. The nationwide protest day will demand the resignation of Amit Shah as home minister," they said.

A massive political row erupted last week as the Congress and other opposition parties launched an all-out attack on Shah for his remarks on Ambedkar and demanded his sacking while Modi and other top BJP leaders rallied to his defence and said he had exposed the Congress' "anti-Ambedkar" stand.

Unequivocally opposing 'one nation, one election', the Left parties called it "a direct assault on the federal structure and the rights of state legislatures and the people who elect them". Two bills -- a Constitution amendment bill and an ordinary bill -- that lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous elections were introduced in the Lok Sabha after a fiery debate last week.

The Left leaders said, "It is a recipe for centralisation and truncating the will of the people by arbitrary reduction of the five-year term of legislatures. The Left parties will conduct a countrywide campaign against the 'one nation, one election' scheme." They also demanded the immediate withdrawal of an election rule amendment preventing public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera and webcasting footage.

They said the Left intervention on political and people's issues would be stepped up in the coming days. For this, regular meetings of the Left parties will be held to project the Left policies and promote joint actions.