The Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member B.V. Raghavulu on Saturday said the BJP-led NDA rule at the Centre was replete with incidences of communal violence and unemployment and deaths due to starvation had plagued development.
The CPI(M) launched ‘Praja Chaitanya Bheri’, an awareness campaign to educate people on the banes of supporting the BJP government at the Centre. Earlier, the party leaders took out a rally from the Lenin Centre to the Dharna Chowk amid slogans against the ‘anti-people’ policies of the Centre.
Addressing the protesters, Mr. Raghavulu criticised the ruling YSR Congress Party and the opposition TDP, for supporting the BJP at the Centre.
Mr. Raghavulu alleged that the Modi government had failed to contain the coronavirus spread. Scores of workers, unable to return home and in the absence of a source of livelihood, were dying due to starvation. The prices of essential commodities had gone beyond the reach of the common man and the nation faced a serious economic downturn.
He alleged that the BJP government had failed on all fronts and, as a diversionary tactic, it had been creating communal tensions and attacking the minorities. Taking an undue advantage of its brute majority in Parliament, the party had got Bills detrimental to the interests of the working sections passed, ‘sold away’ public sector units and made changes in the Right to Education Act.
Flays YSRCP, TDP
About the Polavaram irrigation project, the CPI(M) leader said the YSRCP and the TDP were engaged in a slugfest, ignoring the welfare of the State and its people. In the name of reforms, the Centre had imposed restrictions and did away with subsidies, but both the ruling and the opposition parties in the State did not feel the need to question it, he said.
About the promised projects to the State, he said there was no headway in the Visakha railway zone, the State was yet to receive funds for development of the capital and electricity meters were being installed in farmers’ fields and yet nobody questioned the government.
Mr. Raghavulu said the TDP did not do a sincere job of developing a capital on practical lines leaving ample scope for the Jagan government to make it a complex issue. Mr. Jagan, who was then in the Opposition and supported the government decision, now went back on his word, he said, adding that his three-capital formula was anything but practical.
He accused the Chief Minister of misleading the people of the State on the introduction of English as a medium of instruction in government schools, the capital issue and development of backward areas.
The party’s State executive committee member Ch. Baburao, State committee member Donepudi Kasinath, leaders M. Krishna Murthy, V. Umamaheswara Rao, D.V. Krishna, K. Sridevi and others participated.