Karat charges Trinamool with adopting double standard

Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat has accused the Trinamool Congress of double standard, criticising the United Progressive Alliance government's policies even while being part of the ruling coalition at the Centre.

“On every issue concerning the people, the Trinamool Congress has adopted double standard. It joins the government at the Centre and opposes its policies in Kolkata. These are the two faces of the Trinamool Congress,” he said at the open session of the party's 23rd State conference here on Sunday.

The Trinamool Congress, he pointed out, was party to the Centre's decision to decontrol petrol prices, but its leaders, while being in Kolkata, maintained that they were not aware of it and would oppose it.

“Why is the Trinamool Congress not raising its voice so that the benefits of the proposed Food Security Bill can be extended to the masses without the distinction of being above or below the poverty line?” he asked.

Claiming that only the Left parties had an alternative to the policies of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr. Karat said the party would work towards setting up a platform of Left and other pro-people parties across the country, while striving to strengthen unity in the Left.

As for the UPA government, Mr. Karat said it was a “shameful government,” which maintained that there was no scam and the exchequer did not suffer any loss in the 2G spectrum sale, even after the Supreme Court cancelled all 122 licences it had issued.

He blamed the Centre's economic policies for the rising prices of essential commodities and liberalisation and privatisation for the crisis in agriculture.

The former West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, questioned the “change” the Trinamool Congress had been talking of. “We are now not in government; there has been a change in West Bengal, but what is the change we are witnessing?” he asked, accusing the Trinamool Congress government of taking the State towards lawlessness and chaos.

Highlighting the need to stop the “danger and anarchy” brought upon the State by the government, he called for the CPI(M) to win over those it had alienated, especially the poor, and those who had been enthused by the Trinamool's call for “change” but found themselves in a situation in which there was despair “whichever way one turns.”