CPI(M) sees communal message in PM's Mathura rally

NEW DELHI: CPI(M) today said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's choice of launching propaganda blitz on his one-year rule from Mathura was "not innocent", and alleged it was loaded with dangers of escalating communal tension across the country.

"Remember that the RSS/BJP have all along highlighted that they shall 'liberate' the Ram Janmasthan (Ayodhya), Krishna Janmasthan (Mathura) and Kashi Vishwanath temple (Benaras). Appropriately, PM Modi was presented with a Krishna idol by the local BJP MP Hema Malini," party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said.

Recalling that demolition of Babri Masjid had unleashed a "vicious communal poison" that claimed hundreds of lives and that Modi has chosen Varanasi after winning from two Lok Sabha seats, he said now the launch of this programme celebrating the end of one year from Mathura sent "ominous signals indeed".

In an editorial in CPI(M) organ 'People's Democracy', Yechury referred to multi-coloured advertisements in all streams of the media and said "it is little wonder that major corporates are making a scramble to own media companies".

The Rajya Sabha member also expressed concern over credibility of 'fourth estate' - the press - suffering "heavily under barrage of handsomely paid advertisements".

"Corporate takeover of media is an attempt to earn credibility. But when the corporates run their control over media to serve their ends of sycophancy, then it is the media's credibility that is at stake," he said.

Commenting on the "propaganda blitz", Yechury claimed all Union Ministers are set to hold three public meetings and as many press conferences across the country. Accusing Modi of perfecting the art of feeding NRIs with rhetoric on his unprecedented number of foreign tours, Yechury said the RSS and BJP will use similar ways to influence Indian people with demagogy.

Yechury said the BJP-led NDA government must be told "forcefully" by strength of popular people's mobilizations that "propaganda does not and has never filled stomachs".

"Since the current reality is not filling the stomachs either, this Government must be forced to reverse its anti-people policies and refrain from patronizing the sharpening of communal polarization negating the very secular democratic foundations of our Republic," the Rajya Sabha MP said.