People’s Union of Democratic Rights (PUDR) strongly condemns the Maoist attack in Dantewada in which BJP legislator Bhima Mandavi, three security personnel travelling with him and the driver of the vehicle have been killed. Carried out yesterday, two days before polls begin on 11.04.19 in Chhattisgarh, the incident is a serious attack on democratic institutions and processes.  Election boycott is part of Maoist ideology and they uniformly boycott elections and campaign for others to do so. While election boycott is a familiar and democratic form of political protest undertaken by many organisations, such attacks are unacceptable. PUDR calls upon all political parties and individuals engaging with elections to eschew perpetrating and inciting violence, including that based on caste and community, in order to further their political aims.

Shahana Bhattacharya

Deepika Tandon

Secretaries, PUDR

pudr@pudr.org