Rising inflation, nationwide stir on Feb 27: CPI(M)

New Delhi, Feb 18: The two-day meet of the top leadership of the CPI(M) concluded today with the resolve to hold a country-wide agitation against rising inflation, and to press for its demand of halting FDI in retail and a review of the SEZ Act, among other things.

The party's 18 member Polit Bureau, which held deliberations for two days at the party headquarters -- A K Gopalan Bhawan, also asked the Manmohan Singh government to come out openly against the US ''designs to launch a military attack'' on Iran as it had done in Iraq.

The Left party also criticised the secular parties for ''their lack of concerted efforts to counter and rebuff the BJP and the RSS,'' whom it charged with mostly being responsbile for violence in Bangalore, Gorakhpur, Jabalpur, Mandaur, Indore and other places.

''We have asked our units throughout the country to organise an agitation against price rise on February 27, which has hit the poor, the downtrodden and the lower middle classes so badly,'' party General Secretary Prakash Karat said at a press conference after the conclusion of the meet.

Squarely blaming the government for not taking adequate steps to curb the trend, he said the curbing of futures trading in foodgrains and other essential commodities, revising tax structure for petroleum products, ensuring procurement of foodgrains at prices fair to farmers, strengthening of PDS and ensuring price control of of essential drugs was paramount to check inflation.

On curbing the organised sector in retail, the Polit Bureau viewed the presence of big MNCs in trade as having the ''effect of displacing petty shop-owners and traders.'' Besides, introduction of strict regulations for the entry of corporate sector in retail trade was urgently recquired, the CPI(M) leaders said. ''The Polit Bureau has decided to prepare a note on regulating the corporate sector in retail trade and will submit it to the government,'' he said.

On the Nandigram and Singur issues, Mr Karat said while the Polit Bureau had endoresed the stand taken by the Left Front government on the Tata car project in Singur, the SEZ proposals for Bengal will be finalised after the changes in the SEZ Act and Rules are brought out at national level.

While party veterans Jyoti Basu and H S Surjeet could not attend the meet of the party's highest decision-making body deliberations due to their indisposition, senior party leaders including West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, his Kerala counterpart V S Achuthanandan, and Rajya Sabha MPs Sitaram Yechury and Ms Brinda Karat participated in the meet.

UNI

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