NewsClick row: Remarks against Karat BJP's smear campaign, says CPI(M)

Alleging that a smear campaign is underway against the Left as it is the most “consistent opponent” of the saffron party’s communal ideology, the CPI(M) on Wednesday (August 9) hit out at BJP MP Nishikant Dubey over his remarks against the party and its former general secretary Prakash Karat.

On Monday (August 7), Dubey had raised in Lok Sabha the issue of a news report in the New York Times, which claimed that web portal NewsClick has received Rs 38 crore funding and the money has been used to create an anti-India environment.

Also read: Expunged NewsClick remarks appear on LS site; ‘never happened before,’ says Congress

“The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the remarks made by Nishikant Dubey, a BJP MP, on the floor of the Lok Sabha against the CPI(M) and its former general secretary that they are a so-called deshdrohi (traitor) party,” the CPI(M) said in a statement.

“Dubey also refers, in flagrant violation of established parliamentary procedures, to thousands of mails that he wants to bring on record to prove his point. Let him do so, so that the utter falsity of his claims are exposed. The CPI(M) also condemns the disinformation campaign being conducted by a section of the media on this matter,” the CPI(M) said in a statement issued in Delhi.

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“The politics and ideology of the CPI(M) is an open book. The BJP knows very well that the Left is the most consistent opponent of its Hindutva communal ideology and that is why it is conducting this smear campaign,” the statement said.

NewsClick issued a statement on August 7 evening, claiming the allegations being made against it “by certain political actors and sections of the media are unfounded and without basis in fact or law”.

(With agency inputs)