The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury here on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of raising the communal pitch once again across the country with an eye on the forthcoming polls to some State Assemblies.

“After the party’s debacle in the Bihar elections despite adopting the ‘Hindu Communal Agenda’, the BJP leaders, including some of the Union Ministers have been claiming that a temple would be built at Ayodhya even with the pending Supreme Court verdict. Stones have been transported to the site and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is silent about it,” he charged, at a press conference.

Joining the issue with the Prime Minister on his recent speech, Mr. Yechury claimed that the BJP and its allied organisations have been “exporting communal theology” and not spiritualism as the former had stated. “How else can we explain the NDA government’s actions in the last one-and-half years,” he asked.

The government had utterly failed in the security front too and had no clue yet about the Pathankot incident on “who the terrorists were and where they had come from”.

“The government had prior information yet it took six days to neutralise the perpetrators. Will the government continue with its overtures towards Pakistan,” he wondered. At the same time, the CPI(M) leader also wanted the government to continue ‘engaging’ Pakistan.

Seeking to demolish the government’s assertions on the economy, he said there was no industrial growth and agriculture showed a decline. Excise tariffs hike on the petroleum products when the global crude oil had declined was only meant to tackle the fiscal deficit without a concern to the burden to the common man.

Mr. Yechury saw no difference between the Congress and the BJP with regard to the economic reforms and claimed the Left Parties had an alternative vision. Instead of giving crores of rupees (five lakh crore rupees) in tax concessions to Indian and foreign companies, the government should collect “legitimately what is due” and spend the money for infrastructure development.

Responding a question, the CPI(M) leader dismissed the possibility of any association with the Congress for the West Bengal Assembly poll.