Date:09/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/09/stories/2008010952430700.htm

Tamil Nadu

CPI(M) favours a third front without Congress, BJP: Prakash Karat

S. Sundar

Party’s three-day State conference begins in Madurai

MADURAI: The Left parties, along with democratic forces, should form a third front as an alternative to the Congress and “communal” Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said here on Tuesday.

Delivering the inaugural address at the CPI (M)’s three-day State conference, Mr. Karat said, “Left parties should grow independently through mass movements and by taking up people’s issues.” Tamil Nadu was one of the important States for the party.

Though the CPI (M) was supporting the United Progressive Alliance Government at the Centre, it had assumed the role of the opposition by pushing real issues of the working class and peasantry to the fore.

It was the CPI (M) that mounted pressure on the Government to formulate the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, the Right to Information Act, and Scheduled Tribes (Recognition of Forest Rights) Bill, 2005. Besides, it prevented disinvestment in Navratna companies and further opening up of banking and insurance sectors.

The party, he said, was being targeted as it was working to defend the nation’s sovereignty and opposing neo-liberalisation policies. A section of the media had stepped up the attack on the CPI (M) in the party-ruled States. However, people in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura had rallied behind the party in large numbers.

Mr. Karat was confident that the party would come back to power in Tripura with increased strength in the February elections.

“There is no anti-incumbency wave, as the party is pursuing a policy in the interest of the working class.”

On the other hand, the people had rejected the Congress in three States ruled by it – Punjab, Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh – as its economic policies did not benefit them. The major cause for discontent among people under the UPA Government was the ever-increasing prices of essential commodities because of its wrong policies. “People are not able to get employment in rural areas and cheap food [grains] from ration shops.”

The 9 per cent growth rate of the gross domestic product, achieved because of the neo-liberalisation policies of the UPA, had only doubled the number of billionaires in the country in the last year. The Centre had failed to tackle the agrarian crisis that had led to the suicide of over 1.5 lakh farmers since the late 1990s.

Communist Party of India state secretary D. Pandian, CPI (M) secretary N. Varadarajan, and senior leaders N. Sankariah, R. Umanath, K. Varadarajan and T.K. Rengarajan participated in the meeting.