CPI dubs 'economist' PM a failure

New Delhi, Jul 21 (UNI) Opposing the trust vote against the Congress-led UPA government in the Lok Sabha, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta today launched a frontal attack on "economist" Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by dubbing him a failure for pursuing the economic policy that was followed by the previous BJP-led NDA government.

Participating in the debate on confidence motion moved by the Prime Minister, the communist leader alleged that the government had no "political commitment" to touch rich people because of their relationship with them.

Counting failures of the government, Mr Dasgupta said agriculture was in crisis, inflation had reached 12 per cent, per capita consumption of foodgrains had declined from 476 grams to 418 grams, consumers were paying 60 per cent more than the wholesale price of foodgrains, and unemployment had reached an "explosive point".

He said if there were one lakh millionaires in the country, 371 million people were living on less than a dollar a day and another 370 million on less then two dollars a day, adding one millionaire accounted for 7,000 impoverished people.

Warning the Prime Minister that he was on trial, the CPI leader in the House said elections were knocking at the doors and urged Dr Singh to be prepared to face the people's verdict.

Mr Dasgupta asked the economist in PM as to why industrial production was declining when the government claimed robust investment of 36 per cent of the GDP. He further asked Shipping Minister T R Baalu why the prices of foodgrains were rising when the country had a record production of 270 million tonnes.

Rejecting the government's claim that high inflation was on account of high prices of commodities in the international market, he asked why it was so high at 12 per cent in India, highest in 13 years, but low at 3.7 per cent in May in Europe, though also the highest in 16 years.

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