Senior Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Dasgupta has said that he is not optimistic about the formation of a third front ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
Addressing mediapersons here on Monday, Mr. Dasgupta said he, however, was optimistic about a people’s movement against the corrupt United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre.
Asked whether Left parties would support the Congress to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party from coming to power, Mr. Dasgupta said there was no question of supporting “either a corruption-oriented power or a communalism-oriented power.”
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Accusing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of being conspicuously silent on the country’s state of economy, Mr. Dasgupta, who is a member of the Lok Sabha and general secretary of the All India Trade Union Congress, wondered how he could inaugurate the Emerging Kerala summit here on September 12 when the whole of India failed to emerge under the Congress rule.
Stating that agricultural and industrial growth is at an all-time low, Mr. Dasgupta alleged that the Prime Minister has failed to explain to the people of the country his strategy to counter the stagnation of the economy. There are moves to rein in expenditure in the social sector when there is need for heavy investment on the part of the government.
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Mr. Dasgupta said the UPA government believed that the private sector could be the engine of growth. The private sector has a role to play but not the primary role. It is the role of the government to provide stimulus to the economy, he said.
General strike
Pointing out that trade unions across the country will join hands to resort to a general strike on February 20 and 21, Mr. Dasgupta said a massive Parliament march will be held on December 20 besides staging protests across the country on December 18 and 19.