CPI(M) announces mass campaign in Kerala against Central policies

The protests would be bolstered by the local committees of the party across the state. According to him, thousands of party workers would take part in the agitation.

Criticising the Central government, Govindan said it had adopted a stand of “suffocating” the state government through its economic policies.

He claimed lapses in the payment of GST dues to the state. He said the Centre even reduced the borrowing capacity of the Kerala government.

“The Central government is acting against all the states, especially Kerala. The economic policies are suffocating the state. The Central government is also turning a deaf ear to the demands to clear the GST dues for the state of Kerala and other non-BJP-ruled states,” Govindan told reporters.

He also opined that the BJP and the RSS were working towards the goal of Hindu Rashtra and acting against the minority communities in the country.

Thus, according to Govindan, it was to counter the Hindutva forces as well as to oppose the anti-democratic and anti-federal policies of the Union government that the CPI(M) had planned to hold a series of agitations in the state.

‘Merely a beginning’

Noting that the stir was just the beginning, Govindan warned of greater subsequent agitations against the Union government.

The Marxist party would also conduct a door-to-door campaign to create awareness about the people-friendly policies of the state government, he added.

The decisions were taken in the CPI(M)’s two-day state committee meeting that began on Wednesday in Thiruvananthapuram.

During the meeting, various other issues concerning the state, including the LDF government’s handling of the church-led protest in Vizhinjam, were also discussed.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) managed to secure merely one seat out of the 20 in Kerala.

AM Arif representing the Alappuzha constituency was the CPI(M)’s lone representative from Kerala.

Meanwhile, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) managed to secure a landslide win over the LDF, winning the rest of the 19 seats.

(With inputs from PTI)