Yechury roughed up in Delhi

New Delhi, June 7: CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury was roughed up by a young man at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Enraged members of the Communist Party of India-Marxist pounced on him and an accomplice and thrashed them before handing over the pair to police. Both were said to be from the Hindu Se.

Yechury described the attack as an attempt by the RSS “to silence the voices of dissent”.

“We will not be cowed down by Sangh goondagardi to silence us. This is a battle for the soul of India, which we will win,” he tweeted.Meanwhile, top Kerala CPI-M leaders strongly condemned the attack on Yechury that took place inside their tiol party office in New Delhi.

As soon as the Communist Party of India-Marxist workers came to know of the incident, they started preparing to take out protest marches across the state.According to the party, the incident occurred just before Yechury was to address the press meet after the two-day meeting of the CPI-M politburo.

Around 4.00 p.m, Yechury was about to enter the party’s press conference hall when two people shouting “Bharat Mata ki Jai” rushed mecingly towards Yechury. But the staff of the party office quickly intervened and rescued Yechury.

The Delhi Police took away the attackers, who also tried to damage the office furniture in the office.

Chief Minister Pirayi Vijayan, who is in Delhi, in his Facebook page strongly condemned the attack on Yechury.

“It amounts to an attack on Indian democracy,” said Vijayan.

State Fince Minister Thomas Issac told the media here this was probably the first of its kind incident where a tiol leader was attacked inside the tiol office of a tiol party.

“Such an incident is completely unheard of. This is an attack by the BJP-RSS, as they have been doing this against all who stand against them. I will not be surprised to hear that police remained a silent witness to it.” (IANS)