The Communist Party of India will take a stand on the presidential candidate after a meeting of Left parties on May 4, CPI National Secretary D. Raja told journalists here on Monday.
The party would discuss the issue with the Left parties and then take a decision. Only thereafter the questions of reaching out to like-minded parties, what type of candidate to be backed and whom to select would arise, Mr. Raja said. At present, the party was of the view that there should be consensus and it did not matter if the person chosen was either a political figure or apolitical.
On the economic front, Mr. Raja said the country was in a tight situation as growth had slowed down. There was stagnation in production and if the situation continued, there would soon be a downslide. Then the Government of India would have nobody to blame but itself. For, it pursued neo-liberal, wrong economic policies, divesting its stake in companies and withdrawing from public sector units.
Mr. Raja rubbished Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement that the fundamentals of the economy were strong. The prices of all essential commodities would rise if the government deregulated fuel prices and oil marketing companies were allowed to increase rates. This would have a cascading effect on the prices of goods and services and the common man would suffer.
The CPI leader urged the Centre to play an active role in rescuing kidnapped Sukma Collector Alex Paul Menon, not looking at the Maoist threat and Naxalism through the law and order prism, and address the fundamental issues.
If Home Minister P. Chidambaram was of the view that using police and paramilitary forces could curb Naxalism, he was wrong, he said.
The UPA government had lost all moral authority to rule the country as it got itself entangled in “one scam after another.”
