KASARGOD: India will not be allowed to be turned into a ‘Hindu copy’ of Pakistan, said CPI national leader and Rajya Sabha member Binoy Viswam. “The police and the RSS government in Karnataka have become part of a military rule,” he told reporters in Kasaragod on Saturday.
Viswam, who went to Mangaluru to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, was detained by Karnataka Police. He was later dropped at Manjeshwar police station and handed over to ASP D Shilpa. Around 50 workers of the CPI reached the city from various places on Friday night.
Of them, only eight people including CPI Karnataka state secretary CPI Swati Sunderesh, could manage to reach the Gandhi Statue near KSRTC Bus Stand — the planned protest site — because of the heavy police bundobust. They raised slogans holding up photographs of Ambedkar.“No one is stepping out of the house. Schools remain shut. The place looks like it was run over by an enemy country,” Viswam said, after being sent back to Kasaragod.
CPI condemns leader’s arrest
T’Puram: CPI state leadership has expressed strong protest over the arrest of senior CPI leader and Rajya Sabha MP Binoy Viswam. The CPI leadership called for state-wide protest marches against the arrest. CPI central secretariat member Binoy Viswam, Karnataka state secretary Swati Sundaresh and other senior leaders were arrested by the Karnataka police for taking out a procession in Mangaluru on Saturday. “The BJP government in Karnataka is trying to suppress protests against the CAA through force and prohibitory orders,” said CPI state secretary Kanam Rajendran. Protests and agitations cannot be suppressed through such steps, he said.