CPM says OBC quota necessary, but not for creamy layer

New Delhi, May 22 (UNI) The CPI(M) today said it had apprised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who has begun holding discussions with political parties on the contentious reservation issue, of its view that the Left stood for quotas for the OBCs, but the benefits should not go to the creamy layer.

CPI(M) senior leader and Party Chief Whip in the Lok Sabha, Rup Chand Pal, while talking to UNI, said reservation must not affect the prospects of other sections of society and that the UPA government was bound to implement the related constitutional amendment passed unanimously by Parliament.

But CPI National Secretary Shamim Faizi said his party had yet to interact with the PM.

Mr Pal condemned the 'fidayeen' attack at a Congress rally in Srinagar to mark the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi killing seven people and approved of Dr Singh's decision to go ahead with his trip to the valley to attend the round table conference.

The CPI(M) polit bureau, in a statement issued today, denouncing the attack had described to as an effort deter separatist groups from joining the round-table discussions, and urged the parties there to ignore such attempts.

Earlier, at a press conference Mr Pal and party Floor Leader in the Lok Sabha Basudeb Acharia, in reply to a question on how the Prime Minister should handle the situation rising out of the attack, and whether he should cancel his proposed visit to Pakistan in July-August, said, ''He should not only attend the Srinagar conference but should also go to Pakistan to further the peace process. We hope he will go.'' However, the two leaders listed several failures of the UPA government's two years in office, particularly in checking the spiralling prices of essential commodities -- pulses, cement, sugar, foodgrain, among others.

When it was pointed out that inflation rates had remained low, the Left leaders said, ''This is because of faulty calculations and the defective task.'' When asked about the ''political compulsions'' behind their continued support to the Manmohan Singh government, they said these compulsions were to ''defend the secular character of the country and the social fabric.'' On the Left parties' decision to "boycott" the government's celebrations to mark the completion of two years in office, Mr Acharia and Mr Pal said, ''We cannot swallow the political agenda of the government.'' Stating that they did not subscribe to the so-called success of the Congress-led coalition, because they were of the view that two years was not a ''small time''.

''The government, barring one or two concrete achievements like the Rural Employment Guarantee scheme, has failed to implement the pro-poor provisions of the CMP, the Women's reservation Bill, social security for the unorganised workers, among other things.

The Left leaders, to another query pertaining to the relevance of their support to the government when, according to them it had failed on all counts, said it was only because of their pressure that they could prevent the ''huge increase'' in the prices of petroleum products in September last year.

''We will continue to intensify this pressure,'' they added.

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