Likening Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a 'chowkidar' (guard) selling dreams and looting the country instead of remaining vigilant and awake, CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Sunday said he has to be removed and an alternative secular government installed for ushering in policies benefiting the country and its people.
Yechury, addressing a Left Front rally at the Brigade Parade ground here, also described Modi as a "pickpocket" and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee as his associate, robbing the nation and West Bengal.
"Modi calls himself a chowkidar and says everybody has ganged up and hatched a conspiracy to remove the chowkidar of the country because they want to loot the nation.
"The job of a chowkidar is to remain awake and vigilant. But Modi only sells dreams and loots the country. We don't want such a chowkidar. Time has come to sack him. We will remove him and the policies in our country will change for the welfare of the people," Yechury said.
"Under the pressure of the red flag, there will come an alternative secular government, for which we have to make efforts," he said.
Senior Left leaders including CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy, and his All India Forward Bloc, Revolutionary Socialist Party and CPI-M-L (Liberation) counterparts addressed the rally.
Narrating a tale of a pickpocket stealing a worker's monthly salary in the bus and then putting on a facade of benevolence to purchase him a bus ticket, Yechury said: "This is just like our Prime Minister. He has looted us for five years through his policies. And now before the polls, he is promising relief."
More From This Section
The CPI-M chief said a pickpocket has an associate who saves him when he is caught, "The associate is in Bengal, your Trinamool Congress supremo. This pair is committing atrocities on you, looting you."
Urging people to strengthen the red flag, he said, "The more you do so, the more will the polices change to benefit the people."
Yechury took a dig at the January 19 rally of 23 anti-BJP parties at the same venue and said they only talked of removing the Modi government.
"But you have to remove the Trinamool also from power in West Bengal. By letting one continue, you can't remove the other. If you want to save both the country and Bengal from ruin, you need to remove both of them."
Alleging that democratic rights were being throttled in Bengal, the veteran Marxist warned that if attempts were made to stop the Left, "then the fire of resistance will spread all across".
He said during the 34-year Left Front rule, Bengal was a picture of communal amity. "But now that is being threatened. They (the ruling Trinamool and the Opposition BJP) are dividing people on communal lines. An atmosphere of violence and hatred is being created across the country.
"Our constitution is being violated in Assam in the name of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The minority community there is feeling insecure."
Assailing Modi for pursuing 'anti-people' policies, he said farmers were committing suicide, while the youth wander around in search of non-existent jobs, and demonetisation and roll out of the Goods and Services Tax closed down lakh of business units.
Alluding to the banking scam, he said: "Modi's friend has fled after looting around Rs 15 lakh crore in the form of loans, and he is now a fugitive. No step has been taken against him. To improve the situation, now they have started merger of banks, so that the process of loot becomes easier."
Charging the BJP-led central dispensation with changing laws to facilitate loot, he said as per last year's figures, "95 percent of the total value of electoral bonds has gone to the BJP.
"This is corruption. Where did the money of Rafale (fighter jet) scam go, it went to the BJP through electoral bonds."
He said the country wants "niti" (policies) and not 'neta'(leader).
--IANS
ssp/oeb/bg