CHENNAI: Left parties on Tuesday strongly condemned the death threat issued to CPM’s Madurai MP Su Venkatesan, describing it as an attack on Parliamentary democracy and calling for prompt intervention by the police.
In a statement, CPM state secretary P Shanmugam said that Venkatesan had taken part in a debate in the Lok Sabha on July 28, during which he criticised the Union BJP government in connection with the recent Pahalgam attack. Later that night, an unidentified person allegedly contacted the MP by phone, issued a death threat, and used abusive language.
According to Shanmugam, the caller reportedly said, “How dare you criticise Prime Minister Modi? You will not return to Tamil Nadu alive. If you come, I will kill you.”
Venkatesan lodged an online complaint with the Tamil Nadu Director General of Police the same night, he said, urging the State government and the police to register a case, arrest the individual without delay, and provide appropriate security to the MP.
Issuing a death threat to an elected representative for remarks made within the House undermines the very foundation of Parliamentary democracy, he said. He appealed to all democratic forces to raise their voice against what he termed a grave anti-democratic act.
Joining the issue, CPI state secretary R Mutharasan said that history has shown that Communists are never afraid of such cowardly threats. “We strongly condemn the death threats that try to take away the freedom of expression guaranteed by the Constitution,” he said, demanding that the State government and the police take immediate action on the complaint to identify the person who made the call and his background.