Trump's claim about Kashmir disturbing, damaging for India: Sitaram Yechury
CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said US President Donald Trump's statement claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had requested him to mediate between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir dispute was "disturbing and damaging" for India.
Noting that Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and his ministry has rubbished Trump's claim, Yechury said it is very important for the people of India to know which party was telling the truth regarding the issue.
"We find it very disturbing and damaging to India that the US President in a conversation with the Pakistani Prime Minister, declared that the Indian Prime Minister (Modi) requested him to mediate in the Kashmir dispute and that information was put out by the US state department as part of the official transcript of the press briefing.
"Later, a news agency put out a video recording of a conversation between Imran Khan and Donald Trump where the US President has claimed the same," Yechury told reporters here after his party's state committee meeting.
"This has been officially denied in the parliament by the Indian foreign minister. India has always maintained that Kashmir dispute is a bilateral issue and there is no scope or need for any third-party intervention...So we need to know who is correct -- Trump or Modi and if Trump is lying then we (Indian government) should come out very clearly. But that has not happened so far," he said.
The Left leader said his party is firmly against any third-party intervention in the Kashmir dispute and believes that it is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.
Attacking the NDA government, Yechury said an atmosphere of hatred and violence is growing rapidly across the country and lynchings and hate crimes have been reported from various places since "Modi 2.0" has taken over.
On the unrest and violence in West Bengal, Yechury claimed 49 incidents of communal violence have taken place in the state since the last Assembly election in 2016 along with several incidents of political violence like the one in North 24 Parganas district's Kankinara.
He questioned the role of the Mamata Banerjee government in curbing the violence.
"Only a cosmetic, media-oriented narrative has been spread regarding BJP Vs TMC battle here. But on the ground what is the state government doing? It becomes very clear that TMC is not the answer to the communal polarization of the BJP," Yechury said.
He also said that the RSS has made massive inroads in Bengal under the Trinamool Congress government as the number of its 'shakhas' has increased from 425 in 2011 to 1,427 in 2019.
Also Read: ITR Filing 2019: CBDT extends Income tax return filing deadline till August 31
Also Read: IMF scales down India's GDP growth rate by 0.3% each in 2019, 2020
