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CPI calls for radical steps to survive global crisis

HYDERABAD: The Communist Party of India has stressed the need for taking ‘radical steps’ like expanding the domestic market to withstand the global financial crisis following the economic meltdown in the U.S.

CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan said the struggle by the Left parties during the last four years ensured that the country was not ‘dragged into the depth of the financial crisis.’

Recalling AICC president Sonia Gandhi’s speech at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit where she lauded the nationalisation of banks by the former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, he said it was ‘amazing’ that she did not mention the ‘continuous and consistent’ efforts by the policymakers in the UPA coalition to ‘dilute’ nationalisation.

Speaking at the inauguration of the CPI State council’s two-day executive meeting here on Saturday, Mr. Bardhan said Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s argument in favour of bringing down public equity in banks to 51 per cent was a prelude to ‘de-nationalise’ them. But for the opposition from the Left, pension and provident fund would have been subject to speculation and gambling in the stock market.

“Should there not be honesty? The Left has saved the country from a financial crisis,” he said.

On the claims about a drop in the inflation rate, he said the parameters for calculating inflation had nothing to do with the items the common man used.

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