The BJP’s ‘Gujarat model’ campaign is a ‘hot air balloon’ that lacked substance and would fizzle out on the ground, said Brinda Karat, CPM Polit Bureau Member here on Tuesday.
Seeking votes for the Left Front, on an independent platform for the first time in the State, without an ally, Ms. Brinda Karat, said this was a fight for ‘fundamental change’ in the politics of the country.
According to Ms. Karat, Hindutva policies will be disastrous for the country, and Modi represented the ‘most rabid face’ of these policies.
“The Kisan, the worker, the woman may be a Hindu or a Muslim, but those who oppress them are all the same,” Ms. Karat said sparing neither the two Dravidian parties nor the two national parties.
The AIADMK government has given only 45 days of work, while the left parties were fighting to have MGNREGA extended beyond Panchayat limits, Ms. Karat said. According to her, the State that implemented MGNREGA well was the left-ruled Tripura that provided 98 days of work.
‘Silent on communalism’Those calling themselves parties of the Dravidian Movement, and social justice like the DMK and the AIADMK have gone silent on communalism, she said and added, “It is good to criticise the BJP and the Congress in the same vein, but why are they silent on the issue of defence of minority rights, or the RSS?”
Not sparing the former Union Minister and expelled DMK leader M.K. Alagiri, Ms. Karat said he raised ‘both his hands’ to support the UPA, when fertilizer subsidy cuts were made that affected the farmers of the Delta.
“The DMK stood by the UPA when the petrol price was raised 28 times and diesel price 18 times.”
Calling for democratic, secular change, Ms. Karat hoped that the people would usher in ‘winds of change’ that would ‘blow away both the DMK and the AIADMK” here. Ms. Karat sought votes for K. Palanichamy of the CPI for Nagapattinam Lok Sabha constituency.
