Govt orchestrating violence to disrupt peaceful protests, says CPI(M)

The CPI(M) accused the government on Thursday of "orchestrating violence" to disrupt peaceful protests against its policies and highlighted how a similar methodology was used during the protests at JNU and against the CAA at the Jamia Milia University and Shaheen Bagh.

Addressing a press conference, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said what happened in Delhi on January 26 was "straight out of the playbook" of the BJP's tactics.

"That is distraction, destruction and disinformation. It is on the basis of this that they have orchestrated the violence. They now want to use this to distract people from the main issue," he said.

Yechury also raised a slew of questions on the events that led to farmers climbing the ramparts of the Red Fort on Republic Day.

"Lakhs of farmers were proceeding through the pre-decided routes. One splinter element was allowed to deviate from the group.

"How did they deviate without police connivance? How did they reach ITO? They were even allowed to reach the Red Fort and climb up to the ramparts. Anyone who is familiar with the security at Red Fort knows that it is impossible to reach the ramparts without the gates being opened. These gates are usually under lock and key. Who opened the gates and who allowed them to climb the ramparts? This smacks of very clear connivance," he said.

The Left leader also said the entire flow of events on Republic Day followed a methodology used by the saffron party during anti-government protests earlier.

"This is the methodology of the BJP. All anti-government policy protests at the JNU, Jamia Milia, Shaheen Bagh -- at all these places, peaceful protests were disrupted through the orchestration of violence.

"This is being done to farmers also. In the name of local people, political mobilisation is taking place to trigger a confrontation between farmers and locals. The widespread disagreement over these (three) farm laws (of the Centre) and the demand for their repeal are absolutely legitimate," he said.

Earlier, an editorial in the CPI-M's mouthpiece, "People's Democracy", said the tractor parade by farmers in the national capital on Republic Day was a display of people's power, "something the BJP rulers are scared of. The attempts to disrupt the peaceful protests and to discredit the farmers' unions will be stepped up in the coming days".

The farmers' organisations will have to unitedly rebuff such attempts, it said.