'CPI right in demanding review of support to UPA'

Kochi, May 5: Backing CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan's demand that the Left Front review its support to the UPA government, All India Forward Bloc General Secretary Debabrata Biswas today said the issue may be discussed at the Left Front coordination committee's meeting at the end of the budget session of Parliament.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr Biswas castigated the Congress for running the UPA government at the ''diktat of Washington'' Stating that there was no difference between the Congress and the BJP when it came to economic policies and programmes, Mr Biswas said instead of running a government ''by the people, for the people and of the people,'' the UPA government was (running) ''by the corporates, for the corporates and of the corporates.'' Backing the CPI's demand for a review of support to the UPA government, Mr Biswas said this should be done as the government was taking major decisions without consulting the Left parties.

''However, reviewing the support does not mean that we are going to withdraw our support to the government,'' he said.

Stating that the Left parties were supporting the UPA government ''under compulsion'', the Forward Bloc leader said the alternatives were either the BJP or fresh elections.

It was high time that all Left parties, intellectuals and activists do away with their ego and get united to offer a positive, altnerative economic agenda to the people, he said. ''For how long are the Left parties going to play a passive role in Indian politics and run after Lalu, Mulayam or Chandrababu,'' he added.

The Forward Bloc was going to launch an initiative to provide a real alternative to the people from June 22, he said.

Castigating the economic reforms initiated by the Congress, Mr Biswas said the economic reforms only meant deprivation and displacement for the poor.

While the government was boasting of nine per cent GDP growth, over one lakh peasants had committed suicide during the past 15 years, he said.

''Instead of being guided by the CMP (Common Minimum Programme), the UPA government was being guided by 'MMC' (Manmohan, Montek, Chidambaram)','' he said.

Opposing the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), he said the Left parties were going to fight within and outside Parliament for the repeal of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) Act, 2005 and the SEZ Rules of 2006.

''We do not need to create colonies within the country to promote industrialisation,'' he added.

Stating that the Forward Bloc was opposed to the entry of Reliance in the retail sector in West Bengal, he said the Left Front's West Bengal Coordination Committee was likely to meet in the next two to three days to decide on the issue.

Instead of letting in domestic and international MNCs into the retail sector, the Left front governments in West Bengal and Kerala should provide an alternative model.

Regretting that an incident like Nandigram happened in West Bengal, he said this had occurred only because the state government had deviated from the Left front's style of functioning and the Chief Minister and the industries department were taking decisions unilaterally.

UNI

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