BJP building up 'cult of authoritarian leader', says CPI-M

New Delhi, June 16 The CPI-M on Thursday accused the BJP of whipping up Hindutva ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and said it was promoting "the cult of an authoritarian leader".

Commenting on the June 12-13 National Executive meeting of the BJP in Allahabad, an editorial in the CPI-M journal "People's Democracy" said the event confirmed the "division of labour" between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.

"While Modi harped on 'vikas' and his government's commitment to push forward development, Amit Shah spoke about the Hindutva issues such as the alleged exodus of Hindus from Kairana in western Uttar Pradesh," said the Communist Party of India-Marxist. 

"Modi promised to make Uttar Pradesh a developed state if the BJP is voted to power. Amit Shah, on the other hand, laid out the well-tested Hindutva agenda," it said. 

The CPI-M said BJP MP Hukum Singh's allegations that 346 Hindus had been forced to flee Kairana town by Muslims was found to be spurious by the administration and the media. 

"It was found that most of the people in the list had left the town years ago in search of better jobs and livelihood. A few were not alive at present.

"Though the Kairana exodus theory has been effectively debunked, the very fact that the BJP national leadership took it seriously and sent an eight-member team of MPs to enquire into the matter shows the way the communal agenda would be raised in the run-up to the (Uttar Pradesh) elections," it said.

The editorial said the other aspect of the BJP meeting was the "concerted bid to propagate and build up Modi's supreme leadership of the party and the government... 

"What is in the making is the building up of the cult of an authoritarian leader."