CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury took a dig at the Narendra Modi government on Thursday over the announcement of by-election to over 12,500 panchayat seats in Jammu and Kashmir, saying it was a "mockery of democracy."
The Union Territory's Chief Electoral Officer Shailender Kumar said polling would be held from March 5 to March 20 and ballots would be used for casting votes.
"After arresting major political leaders & workers under draconian PSA on flimsy charges, now this mockery of democracy. Time has come for Modi government to declare J&K as a jail. Appoint a Jail warden not a Lt. Governor. The Modi govt will be held to account on this (sic)," CPI(M) general secretary Yechury tweeted.
He also slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his remarks at a summit on Wednesday that only 2,200 people in the country had declared earnings of Rs one crore per annum.
"Mr Modi's complete disrespect for facts or data or the truth, shows up all the time. The only tricks they all have is spin and Goebbels-like propaganda," Yechury said quoting reports that the data stated by Modi on taxpayers was wrong.
"As per Modi, every Indian is a thief while his party is the one that has usurped crores secretly through opaque electoral bonds. If no one pays tax, what has Modi done over past 6 years? Didn't he unleash demonetisation claiming that it would end all black money & tax evasion? (sic)," the CPI(M) general secretary said.
In his speech at the Times Now Summit, Modi had said, "In the last five years, more than 1.5 crore cars have been sold in the country. Over three crore Indians went abroad for work or travel. But the situation is that only one-and-a-half crore people in our country of more than 130 crore pay income tax.
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