Ravi S. Singh
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 24

The Left has announced an nine-day sit in protest that will unite various farm organisations and civil right groups to protest against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) months before the country holds general elections.

Organised under the banned ‘Unite India’, the left-led protest has identified 15 core issues that it will demand are included in the anti-BJP front for the upcoming election. The protest is scheduled to begin on January 30, and will overlap the last Budget Session under the current regime.

Budget session for a vote-on-account begins January 31. This will be an interim budget until the new government gets voted in.

General elections are due for April-May this year.

“All political parties except BJP has been invited to attend the agitation on its concluding day to express their views on the issues,” Hannan Molla, a seven-time MP and member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s farmer wing All India Kisan Sabha(AIKS), said on Thursday.

Independent MLA from Gujarat Jignesh Mevani, and Satbir Singh, member of Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement for OROP Major General (retired)—which will also be part of the protest—said the incumbent Union government has disappointed youth and ex-servicemen.

“The government is promoting atrocities against the dalits and minorities,” Mevani said.

Unite India is an umbrella body powered by the AIKS and other Left-wing organisations. It was floated in July 2018 to launch a grassroots movement.

“As we approach the 2019  General Elections, citizens are stepping up to support an agenda focusing on critical issues in order to collectivity create an uplifting narrative that offers hope for better priorities and direction for the country,” Molla, a key leader of ‘Unite India’ said.

Issues of focus include matters affecting serving armed forces, ex-servicemen, war widows and disabled soldiers, dalits and Advisis, agrarian and rural distress, and hate crimes.