Members of the Communist Party of India (CPI) staged a demonstration here on Monday, protesting against “skyrocketing of prices of essential commodities” and the Narendra Modi government’s “pro-corporate approach”.
Addressing the demonstration in front of the palace, CPI district secretary N.K. Rajan said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power by promising to reduce the prices within three months after coming to power but it miserably failed to check price rise.
Instead of helping the poor and middle class people by taking measures to bring down prices, the Modi government pursued policies that favoured multinational companies and corporate sector, he alleged.
Prices of many essential items commonly consumed by the poor and the downtrodden had increased by manyfold in the last one year, but both the State and Central governments remained silent spectators.
Drastically reducing the subsidy on food items on the one hand, the Modi government extended huge tax concessions to multinational companies on the other, he said.
Last year alone, the Centre had extended tax concessions to the tune of Rs. 5 lakh crore to big companies and the corporate sector, he said.
The NDA had also promised to abolish online trading, which triggered price rise, but failed to keep its promise after coming to power. The government was giving a free hand to online trade to indirectly benefit multinational companies, he charged.
The protest was led by CPI town secretary R.T. Ragunathan, and attended among others by party office-bearers N.S. Perumal, N.A. Kadher, R. Karunanidhi, K. Gurusamy and E. Muruganandam.
