Talks will be initiated with non-Congress secular parties regarding a resolution the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and other Left parties plan to move in Parliament in the winter session demanding that the Centre seek the approval of the House on allowing foreign direct investment in multibrand retail.
Stating this here on Wednesday, CPI (M) general secretary Prakash Karat told a two-day meeting of the party’s State committee that the ‘anti-people’ attitude of the Centre was reflected in its measures directed at economic reforms that were designed to benefit domestic and foreign capital.
The Left parties would launch a campaign across the country against these measures, he said, adding that the struggle in support of the demand for food security would also be intensified.
Mr. Karat said the fact that both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were steeped in corruption and involved in scams was being increasingly evident to the people.
The meeting discussed the political situation in West Bengal, the strategy to be adopted by the CPI(M) for the coming rural polls and various organisational matters.
On the party’s preparations for the panchayat elections, the former Chief Minister and Polit Bureau member, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said the State government was attempting to undermine the powers of the rural bodies that were now being run by the bureaucracy instead of elected representatives. The party would highlight the demand for restoration of people’s rights as it engaged in its election campaign, he added.
The key issues in the coming elections were the protection of the people’s democratic rights and taking forward the historic Left movement in the State, Biman Bose, State Secretary of the CPI(M) told the meeting. There was a need to view the polls as the beginning of a political process that culminated in reversing the existing balance of power in West Bengal, he said.
Mr. Bose urged party workers to muster support for the rally to be organised by the Left Front here on November 17 to protest against the spate of attacks against women across the State.
