The Communist Party of India (CPI) on Wednesday announced to hold protests across Punjab on July 23 to express solidarity with the victims of Gujarat. The party also strongly condemned the “dastardly attack” on dalits in Una town of Gujarat where seven dalits were stripped naked and beaten for skinning a dead cow.
The party, in its meeting, decided that it would hold demonstrations, dharnas or some other form of protest, such as pyre-lit actions, on July 23 against the Gujarat incident in all districts of the state.
CPI stated that during the BJP rule, atrocities on dalits, women, tribal and minority communities have increased tremendously. “It is because of the policies of BJP which are against the minorities, women and dalits and tribals,” said the oarty leader Comrade Hardev Singh Arshi.
Comrade Arshi said that it was not the first incident in Gujarat. “Earlier also, there were attacks on minorities in which hundreds of innocent people lost their lives. This is due to the RSS ideology of hindutava and of terrifying other people and political forces which raise their voice against this dangerous anti-national and anti-Indian ideology and are working to defend secular democratic fiber of the country,” he said.
Releasing the decisions after the meeting, the party demanded that stern action be taken against the failure of the state government. “Day in and day out, they speak very loudly for great values of Baba Sahib Ambedkar, but in actual practice, they believe in caste politics and discrimination even leading to brutal atrocities. Such brutal incident is taking place at the time when the situation is very volatile in Jammu and Kashmir. The incidents in Gujarat demand the dismissal of the Government of Gujarat,” he said.