Bangalore: The United Progressive Alliance Government should do a mid-course correction of its economic policies, D. Raja, national secretary of the Communist Party of India, said here on Wednesday.

Speaking at the valedictory function of the State-wide jatha organised by the Karnataka CPI unit, he said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should guard against emulating the "anti-people policies" of the previous National Democratic Alliance Government.

Citing the manner in which Special Economic Zones (SEZs) were created, he said thousands of acres of fertile land were being "acquired for a song" and handed over to private investors.

This was bound to wreak havoc in the farming sector and add to the food security crisis already facing the nation.

PSUs privatisation

Mr. Raja expressed distress over the privatisation of profit-making public sector undertakings (PSUs), the bedrock of the economy. The electoral defeat of the former Karnataka Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, and the former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, Chandrababu Naidu, celebrated as reform-friendly Chief Ministers, should be a lesson to Dr. Singh, he warned.

Even as the CPI supported the UPA Government from outside, the party had its reservations on the foreign and economic policies of the Centre, he said. Imperialist policies of the U.S. could not go unchallenged, he said.

"Opportunistic alliance"

Mr. Raja called the Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition in Karnataka an "opportunistic and unholy alliance." Those responsible for bringing a "fascist force" such as the BJP to power for the first time in south India should be punished, he added. The statements by Higher Education Minister D.H. Shankaramurthy on Tipu Sultan, Mr. Raja said, were part of a larger design to "distort history through a communal lens."

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