Supreme Court lawyer and human rights activist Prashant Bhushan on March 9 alleged that the death of Sidharthan J.S. , a second-year student of the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Pookode in Wayanad, illustrated the kind of ‘gundagiri’ (hooliganism) involving the cadres of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Students Federation of India (SFI) in Kerala.
“It is unfortunate that the police and the agencies do not act with a kind of alacrity with which they have to act. This is unfortunately a problem that I am witnessing in the State. The CPI(M) and its cadres have clearly been violating the rules of law and the same thing we are seeing in the centre, where lynch mobs are given free rein to do whatever they want to do. It is now being seen in Kerala with regard to the cadres of the CPI(M) and the SFI in the manner in which they treat other people. This must be stopped,” he told a Meet-the-Press programme organised by the Ernakulam Press Club in connection with the forthcoming Lok Sabha election.
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Mr. Bhushan said that such incidents are happening more in the reign of the present Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. “It was not like this even in the time of V.S. Achuthanandan,” he said.
On the claim by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the National Democratic Alliance will win over 400 seats in the Lok Sabha election, Mr. Bhushan said that his confidence is bogus. “It stems from his knowledge that the electronic voting machines can be manipulated. Otherwise, there is no possibility of the Bharatiya Janata Party even reaching the majority, if there was a free and fair election,” he said. “But if they come to power again, I think we can say good bye to this republic. The 2024 Lok Sabha election will decide whether India remains a democracy or not,” he said.
Terming the State Bank of India’s plea before the Supreme Court to provide time up to June 30 to furnish the details of the electoral bonds as ‘ridiculous’, Mr. Bhushan alleged that it was being done at the behest of the Union government as it feels that if the names come out it will become clear which companies were forced to pay kickbacks; which companies had paid kickbacks to mainly the Bharatiya Janata Party as 60% of the bonds were given to it.
