Chennai: Hitting out hard at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not condemning the ‘dog’ remark of Union Minister V K Singh, top CPI leader S Sudhakar Reddy today accused him of making others speak what he could not do say himself.
“On one side, RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat and PM Modi praise Ambedkar and (on the other) his minister V K Singh makes the dog remark and Modi does not say a word about it…Is he afraid of all these people?” Reddy asked at a party meet, indicating that Modi should have condemned it.
“Modi is not afraid,” he said sarcastically. “What he (Modi) does not want to speak openly, he is making them speak.”
He said while Modi hails Mahatma Gandhi as father of the nation, his party MP Sakshi Mahraj had praised his killer Nathuram Godse and wanted his statue to be installed everywhere. “What does Modi have to say about it ? Why does he not condemn it?”
Reddy said while the PM had stated that President Pranab Mukherjee’s words on pluralism and harmony should be followed, he had, however, not directly condemned the attacks on Dalits and minorities.
He was referring to the Dadri lynching and killing of Dalits kids at Faridabad in Haryana.
“Not only minorities but Dalits and several other castes eat beef,” he said and asked, “who are they to say don’t eat beef? this should not be allowed…This government has to be brought to its senses.”
Nationalists were also being attacked, he said and cited the killing of CPI top leader Govind Pansare and writers like Narendra Dabolkar, who fought against superstition.
He also condemned Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma for saying that “let them (writers) not write” over the episode of a slew of return of Sahitya Akademy awards.
“I appeal to the people of Tamil Nadu to stand behind the Left parties to fight against superstitions, against the dark forces which are trying to dominate our life and liberate our motherland from these type of people.”
Earlier, senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP D Raja accused the Sangh Parivar of trying to ‘recast’ national icons, including Gandhi and Ambedkar as their own, to further their “fascist” goals.
He also alleged that RSS was functioning as an extra-Constitutional authority.