Withdraw bill on 'Urban Naxalism': Maharashtra CPI(M) tells Maha Yuti government

'The bill purportedly aims at containing the so-called menace of ‘urban Naxals’. It is a travesty of governance that the government avoids open debate on a supposedly very serious issue for the security of the state,' CPI(M) Maharashtra State Secretary Dr Uday Sarkar said.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Committee of the CPI(M) has called upon the BJP-led Maha Yuti government to withdraw the ‘Maharashtra Special Public Security Bill, 2024’ aimed at curbing Naxals in urban areas besides the rural and tribal pockets.

On Thursday, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is also the home, law and judiciary minister, tabled the bill in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly.

“Trampling upon citizens' democratic rights of protesting against anti-people policies and decisions of a government, the ruling BJP-led alliance has, by introducing this bill towards the fag end of the current Assembly session, exhibited its arrogance born out of panic. It has been introduced bypassing the democratic rights of elected MLAs to discuss threadbare a legislation which is certain to have a deep impact on the democratic processes of governance,” CPI(M) Maharashtra State Secretary Dr Uday Sarkar said.

"The bill purportedly aims at containing the so-called menace of ‘urban Naxals’. It is a travesty of governance that the government avoids open debate on a supposedly very serious issue for the security of the state. It is beyond doubt that the state government is deliberately creating a red herring in order to divert popular attention. Not something, but everything is rotten in Maharashtra today under BJP-controlled rule. In actual fact, the state government, raising the so-called ‘urban Naxal’ bogey, is preparing to suppress all opposition in the run up to the forthcoming Assembly elections,” he said.

"The existing laws are more than adequate to effectively deal with any violent acts and deeds based on any political ideology. Who killed Dr Narendra Dabholkar, Comrade Govind Pansare, Prof Dr M M Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh, all terrorist political acts, is not a secret any more. Those who perpetrated these dastardly killings have been identified as the followers of the Sanatan Sanstha and court proceedings are on against some of them. The Maharashtra Government, in the guise of this bill, is deliberately pointing towards the diametrically opposite direction,” he said.

Dr Narkar said that in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the voters of India have dealt a resounding slap on the face of the notorious triumvirate of Modi-Shah-Yogi for their naked display of authoritarian and dictatorial rule. “The same panic has gripped their junior versions in the state - Fadnavis-Shinde-Ajit Pawar - who face a similar outcome in the forthcoming state assembly elections,” he said.

“The present ruling dispensation in the state is in the last throes of its immoral and corrupt existence, especially after the humiliating drubbing it received in the Lok Sabha election. The people of Maharashtra taught them a lesson for making devilish misuse of the central agencies like the ED, CBI and IT departments. They are again eager to deliver a much more lethal blow to these shameless destroyers of the soul of Maharashtra; the very thought of which has unnerved the Maha Yuti government, making it take recourse to a patently dictatorial step as this one,” he added.