Yechury flays Centre for delay in evacuating Indians from Afghan

Speaking to reporters in Coimbatore, Yechury sought to know the steps taken to ensure the safety of Indians stranded in Afghanistan. “The evacuation of Indians should have been planned and done much earlier, when it was evident what was happening. Many countries planned and evacuated their nationals. But what were we doing? At least for 10 days or two weeks now, it was evident what was going to happen. What were our pre-emptive moves? There are a large number of Indians in Afghanistan and the airspace has now been closed by Talibans,” he said, prior to participating in a two-day state level committee meeting of the party.

On the Pegasus snooping, the CPM leader said that it is a brazen destruction of democracy. Sharpening his attack on the Centre’s decision to observe 14 August as ‘Partition Horrors Remembrance Day’, Yechury said that the government should instead focus on strengthening the Constitution.

Alleging mismanagement in handling of COVID-19 pandemic, the CPM leader said that it may not be possible to vaccinate the adult population by this year end as it requires a vaccination coverage of over one crore people a day.

Demanding the Centre to withdraw duty hike on petroleum products, Yechury said that the CPM along with other opposition parties would organise nationwide protests on various people welfare issues, including controlling the pandemic. Coimbatore MP PR Natarajan and Politburo member G Ramakrishnan were present.