‘Govt. has lost all moral and political authority to rule the country’
The very survival of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government will be challenged in the ensuing Winter Session of the Parliament, as it will not be able to pass the bills related to foreign direct investment in retail, insurance and pension, said D. Raja, National Secretary, Communist Party of India, in Coimbatore on Saturday.
Given the widespread opposition to the Government’s so called economic reforms, the UPA would not be able to pass the bill. And this would make it difficult for the Government to survive. And it was only fit that the Government goes because independent India had not seen such a “corrupt”, “anti-people” and “anti-national” government as this.
“The Government has lost all moral and political authority to rule the country,” he said and added that the country faced politically turbulent times.
Mr. Raja said that the Government must ask itself as to whose interest it had in mind while taking the decisions because, the ones who would benefit would be the multi-national companies and investors from abroad, who looked for profits from India.
If the Prime Minister says that the country faced 1990-like economic crisis, then he had to hold responsibility because it was he as Finance Minister under the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao initiated the reforms. The Prime Minister had failed to learn from the European Union and United States of America experience and continued with the model the World Bank prescribed.
He said the situation was ripe for a political alternative, which was non-Congress and non-BJP. For, the two parties’ economic agenda mirrored the other. What was needed was people-centric policy. The CPI would work towards this.
On the Kundankulam Nuclear Power Project, he said that the Government must explain if the agreement with the former USSR would be outside the purview of the Civil Nuclear Liability Bill. He also called for putting to rest the residents’ apprehension on safety.
D. Pandian, State Secretary, said that the State Government must initiate efforts to start power projects and efficiently run thermal power plants, as the power shortage affected small and medium industries that were labour intensive. He also wanted the Tamil Nadu Assembly to pass a resolution on the Peninsular River Linking Project and urge the Central Government to start the same at the earliest. He also sought a CBI probe in the cases in which CPI cadre have been arrested in Krishnagiri district.
