Accusing the BJP of spreading canards against organisations such as the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and Popular Front of India (PFI), Afsar Kodlapet, State general secretary of SDPI, said on Friday that the Uttar Pradesh government was trying to ban PFI.
Addressing presspersons here, he said that PFI was doing nothing that many other organisation in the country were in opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). “Holding protest against CAA and NRC cannot become grounds for banning any organisation. If that is the case, then the government should ban every other organisation and party sternly opposing [them],” he said.
Stating that the BJP’s objective was to malign the image of PFI and SDPI by projecting the organisations in a bad light, Mr. Kodlapet asserted that neither has been involved in any kind of anti-social or anti-national activity.
He also rubbished the claims of BJP leaders that the organisations have links with terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State (IS).
“The BJP, which is making allegations against us, has been in power at the Centre for six years. So why has it not found any evidence to corroborate its claim? BJP simply wants to spread lies about these organisations and nothing else,” he said.
Accusing the saffron party of trying to gag people opposing CAA and NRC, Mr. Kodlapet said that since the government had “completely failed” in controlling the falling Indian economy, it was raising issues such as NRC and CAA to divert the public’s attention.
“The priority of the government should be to provide employment to the people, control price rise and implement welfare schemes. But since the BJP has failed on all fronts and cannot face the people on these critical issues, it is tactfully trying to divert attention,” he said.
Condemning the police firing in Mangaluru in December where two persons were killed during anti-CAA protests, he demanded that the government immediately take action against P.S. Harsha, the Mangaluru Police Commissioner.
