Patna: Opposition parties have recognised the need to fight together to protect the Constitution and the secular-democratic fabric of the country as the BJP-led NDA rule at the Centre has become “disastrous”, CPI leader D Raja said here on Saturday.

All leaders, who attended the opposition meeting held in Patna a day before, decided to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections unitedly to defeat the BJP, he said.

Talking to reporters here, Raja said, “The BJP rule at the Centre has proved disastrous for our country and our Constitution. Now, opposition parties have recognised the need to fight together to protect the Constitution and the secular-democratic fabric of our nation.” Raja, who attended the opposition meeting, also said, Karnataka has rejected the “politics of hatred and divide” through a decisive mandate.

“The forces that are attacking the Constitution and spreading the politics of hate must be defeated. The BJP government at the Centre should be thrown out,” the CPI general secretary said.

He congratulated Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav for organising the meeting of all secular and democratic parties.

“This meeting assumes significance because the Constitution is being attacked and institutions are being misused by the BJP-led central government. We have to save the country and the Constitution. We will unitedly fight the coming Lok Sabha polls to defeat this autocratic government,” the Left leader said.

He also alleged that the country is “passing through multiple crises like unemployment and price rise, but the central government has turned its deaf ear towards these issues”.

“As far as the Human Development Index is concerned, India is at the bottom”, he said, adding that “privatisation is the primary economic policy” of the Narendra Modi government.

“The BJP government did not allow a debate on the Adani issue in Parliament. Demand for a JPC probe into the Adani issue was also not accepted by the government. The prime minister is only indulging in communal politics…and politics of hatred,” Raja alleged. The US-based firm Hindenburg Research had, in January, released a report and alleged that the Adani Group had “engaged in a brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.

The Adani group has, however, rubbished the charges and termed the report as a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations”.

On the Centre’s contentious ordinance on the control of administrative services in Delhi, Raja said, “This issue was discussed in the opposition parties’ meeting on Friday. All parties, including the Congress, opposed this ordinance. This is against our Constitution. The ordinance has been brought to snatch the powers of an elected government. We all oppose this.” The CPI also hit out at the central government over the party not being invited to an all-party meeting on the situation in Manipur, saying it “exposes the callous attitude” of the home minister.

Leaders of various parties, including the BJP and the Congress, attended the all-party meeting convened by Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday to discuss the prevailing situation in Manipur, where nearly 120 people have lost their lives and more than 3,000 have been injured in ethnic violence since May 3.

Not invited to the meeting, Raja said in a tweet, “Exclusion of CPI from the all-party meeting on Manipur exposes the callous attitude of Home Minister @AmitShah towards the burning problems of the state. The CPI is a recognised party in Manipur and is contributing significantly to peacebuilding and harmony in the state.”